Eckart Ratz (born 28 June 1953) is an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Un ...

who served as a judge and the president of the

Supreme Court of Justice A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

. From 2011 to 2012 he was a vice president of the Supreme Court.
On 22 May 2019, he was appointed Austrian minister of the interior, replacing

Herbert Kickl Herbert Kickl (born 19 October 1968) is an Austrian politician who has been leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) since June 2021. He previously served as Minister of the Interior from 2017 to 2019 and general-secretary of the FPÖ from 2 ...

who had been dismissed from office by President

Alexander Van der Bellen Alexander Van der Bellen (; born 18 January 1944) is the current president of Austria. He previously served as a professor of economics at the University of Vienna, and after joining politics, as the spokesman of the Austrian Green Party. ...

. Originally, Ratz was going to serve as a cabinet minister of the transitional government until the General Elections in fall 2019; however, the entire

second Kurz government The Second Kurz government (german: Zweite Bundesregierung Kurz or ''Kurz II'' for short) was the 33rd Government of Austria. Led by Sebastian Kurz as chancellor and Werner Kogler as vice-chancellor, it was sworn in by President Alexander Van de ...

was ousted by a

vote of no-confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

, after it lost support in parliament by the former coalition partner

FPÖ The Freedom Party of Austria (german: Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Austria. It was led by Norbert Hofer from September 2019 to 1 June 2021.Staff (1 June 2021"Aus ...

References

Austrian judges Interior Ministers of Austria Living people 1953 births 21st-century Austrian politicians {{Austria-law-bio-stub