Austria’s first conservative-green government was sworn in on Tuesday before President Alexander van der Bellen.
There are eight women among the 15 ministers, and Bosnian Alma Zadic has been appointed Minister of Justice. She is also the first minister with a refugee past.
The government is led by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of the Conservative People’s Party, and Vice-President Wernet Kogler of the Greens.
“The challenging phase of the negotiations, which we have bravely faced, is over. We have presented a government agreement today. We have set our guidelines and continue to work with passion and competence for our society,” Zadic wrote on social media earlier.
Alma Zadic fled from her native Tuzla to Vienna in 1994, graduated from the Faculty of Law in Austria and then studied in New York at Columbia University.
When she returned from America, she earned her doctorate in law in Austria, where she worked as a lawyer for seven years.
Since 2017, she has been an MP in the Austrian Parliament, first for Pilc, and then for the Greens in the last election.
After the Austrian Conservatives People’s Party (OeVP) and the Greens reached an agreement on the coalition, party leaders on Thursday also announced a government program focusing on issues such as tax regulation, irregular migration and internal integration.
