Austria’s Christian Kern withdraws from EU election run

Former chancellor announces he is stepping down from politics.

Former Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern announced Saturday he will not run as his Social Democratic Party’s lead candidate in the European Parliament election and is stepping down from politics.

Kern previously said he would stand for his center-left party in the May vote, and reportedly threw his hat in the ring to be the social democratic Spitzenkandidat, or lead candidate, to become European Commission president.

But he told a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Vienna that he was calling time on his political career, because he felt he couldn’t escape national politics in the EU debate and didn’t want to overshadow his SPÖ replacement.

“I’ve always said I’m not a career politician,” he said. “I’m really happy to get my life back this way.”

Kern stepped down as leader of the SPÖ in September, with former Health Minister Pamela Rendi-Wagner picked to replace him. In Saturday’s announcement, Kern said he wanted to give Rendi-Wagner the chance to set her own course in leading the party without a “permanent shadow.”

The SPÖ lost ground nationally in Austria’s October election and the conservative and far-right coalition led by Sebastian Kurz entered government.

Andreas Schieder, the party’s former leader in the lower house of parliament, is one name now tipped to be the SPÖ candidate in the European election. Schieder has expressed interest in moving to Brussels, according to Austrian paper Der Standard.

Slovak Maroš Šefčovič, one of the Commission’s vice presidents, is already in the running to be the social democratic Spitzenkandidat.