Eckart Ratz (born 28 June 1953) is an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

who served as a judge and the president of the Supreme Court of Justice. 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 far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) since June 2021. He previously served as Ministry of the Interior (Austria), minister of the interior from 2017 t ...

who had been dismissed from office by President

Alexander Van der Bellen Alexander "Sascha" Van der Bellen (; born 18 January 1944), also referred to by the abbreviation VdB, is an Austrian politician serving as the president of Austria since 2017. He previously served as a professor of economics at the University ...

. 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 ( 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 der Bellen on 7 January 2020. It wa ...

was ousted by a

vote of no-confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fit ...

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

FPÖ The Freedom Party of Austria (, FPÖ) is a political party in Austria, variously described as far-right, right-wing populist, national-conservative, and Eurosceptic. It has been led by Herbert Kickl since 2021. It is the largest of five par ...

References

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