The Federal President stands “between Austria and the abyss”, judges the magazine “Politico”.
The magazine “Politico” counts Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen among the most influential political figures in Europe. “The professor”, as he is called in the current ranking of the magazine, belongs to the “class of 2022” and thus to the 28 leading minds of the continent. In first place is “the political technocrat” and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
Van der Bellen is classified by the magazine in the category of “doers”. The Federal President is in ninth place behind the new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, ECB boss Christine Lagarde, the EU Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, the British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, EU chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kövesi, ECJ -President Koen Lenaerts and the EU Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, who is in charge of the consequences of Brexit.
“Alexander Van der Bellen stands between Austria and the abyss. Since taking office in 2017, the President of the Alpine Republic has had to deal with three government crises, which made him a political firefighter,” writes the magazine. “After the grueling Ibiza scandal of 2019, he has once again become the central figure who has to manage the fallout from Sebastian Kurz’s resignation as Chancellor in October in the wake of corruption allegations.” This gave the 77-year-old smoker and former green economics professor a lot to think about during his dog walks.
“Austria’s substitute emperor”
Van der Bellen has more powers than other European heads of state, notes “Politico” further. “Austria’s substitute emperor” is also the highest commander in the federal army, and he can also refuse ministerial appointments. As the directly elected Federal President, Van der Bellen is doing much more than just stamping. In an extraordinary step, he also threatened the execution of the deliveries of files from Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) to the Ibiza-U-Committee via the armed forces. He also uses regular video messages to keep Austrians informed about the need for the rule of law.
Van der Bellen was facing more busy times: “The fallout of the Kurz scandal makes new elections likely at the beginning of next year,” according to “Politico”. Van der Bellen will have “his hands full with the fact that Austria does not join some of its Eastern European neighbors and gives the European Union a headache because of the rule of law.”
Ironically, “Politico” also counted Kurz among the most influential European politicians on several occasions. In 2016, the then Foreign Minister was ranked among the 28 most important people for the future of the EU in the magazine’s ranking. In 2017, Kurz was named as the Neo-Federal Chancellor of “Politico” among the “Winner of the Year 2017”. In 2019, the “quick-change artist” was still briefly in the “Politico” ranking of the 28 most influential personalities.
(WHAT)