Klaudia Tanner ( Wallner, born 2 May 1970) is an Austrian politician of the People's Party (ÖVP) who has been serving as the

minister of defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

in the governments of Chancellors

Sebastian Kurz Sebastian Kurz (; born 27 August 1986) is an Austrian former politician who served twice as Chancellor of Austria, first from 2017 to 2019 and then again from 2020 to 2021. Kurz was born and raised in Meidling, Vienna. He entered politics by ...

Alexander Schallenberg Alexander Georg Nicolas Schallenberg (; born 20 June 1969) is an Austrian diplomat, jurist, and politician who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Austria), minister of foreign affairs from 2019 until 2025, briefly interrupted by a period ...

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, and Christian Stocker since January 2020. From 2011 to 2020, she worked as the General Manager of Austria's political farmers' association.

Early life and education

Tanner was born in the small town of Scheibbs in

Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...

. Early in her career, she worked in the cabinet of

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

Ernst Strasser from 2001 to 2003 and for IT company Kapsch BusinessCom, a subsidiary of Kapsch from 2003 to 2010.

Political career

Already in the negotiations on a

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

under

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

following the 2017 elections, Tanner was considered as potential cabinet minister. After the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in cou ...

, Tanner was appointed

Minister of Defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

by Kurz in January 2020, making her the first woman to hold the position. Under Tanner's leadership, Austria mobilized its military reservists for the first time since World War Two, asking them to fight the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

by helping with food supplies, medical support and police operations. Her ministry also ordered 18 Leonardo AW169M helicopters in a deal with Italy in September 2020, replacing its fleet of 50-year-old

Aérospatiale Alouette III The Aérospatiale Alouette III (, ''Lark''; company designations SA 316 and SA 319) is a single-engine, light utility helicopter developed by France, French aircraft company Sud Aviation. During its production life, it proved to be a popular ro ...

helicopters.Francois Murphy (21 September 2020)
Austria ordering 18 Leonardo helicopters in deal with Italy
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

''.

Personal life

Tanner lives in Gresten. She is married and has a daughter.

References

External links

Klaudia Tanner
on the

Austrian Parliament The Austrian Parliament () is the bicameral federal legislature of Austria. It consists of two chambers – the National Council and the Federal Council. In specific cases, both houses convene as the Federal Assembly. The legislature meets i ...

website
Klaudia Tanner
on the Landtag of Lower Austria website
Klaudia Tanner
on the Federal Ministry of Defence website 1970 births 21st-century Austrian women politicians Austrian People's Party politicians Female defence ministers Government ministers of Austria Living people Members of the 28th National Council (Austria) Ministers of defense of Austria People from Scheibbs District Women government ministers of Austria Women members of the National Council (Austria) {{Austria-politician-stub