Chancellor Franz Vranitzky resigned Saturday after a decade in office during which he led Austria into the European Union. Finance Minister Viktor Klima was named to replace him.
There had been speculation for months that the 59-year-old chancellor, one of Europe's longest-serving heads of government, was growing weary of the office. It intensified in October after his Social Democrats turned in their worst election performance since 1918.But a rash of newspaper speculation Saturday, followed by an urgent session of the party leadership, came as a surprise.
Speaking to reporters, Vranitzky said the party needed younger people, and he chose to leave at a time when there was a crisis neither in the government nor the budget. He said he had no concrete plans for the future.
Newspapers reported that Vranitzky had gathered close associates on Friday to discuss his resignation. Kurier newspaper columnist Christoph Kotanko wrote that the timing would give Klima a chance to settle into the job before Austria takes the chairmanship of the European Union for the first time in the last half of 1998, and before the party has to fight new elections in 1999.
Klima served as transport minister from 1992-1996, and since last January as Vra-nitz-ky's finance minister. He already had been dubbed the party's "crown prince" in anticipation that he was a likely successor to Vranitzky.
The meeting of Social Democratic party leaders originally had been scheduled for Sunday, but it was moved up by a day. Asked by reporters as he entered whether he was quitting, Vranitzky simply said, "Yes."
Two hours later, party leaders confirmed he had stepped down. Vranitzky said the leadership had "unanimously and with very wide agreement" accepted his recommendation to nominate Klima to take over.
Vranitzky, well respected inside and outside Austria, has presided over a coalition government with the second-largest party, the conservative People's Party.