section_path: Appointment
section_name: Appointment
paragraph_text: Appointment
  
  The Chancellor is appointed and sworn in by the President. In theory, the President can appoint anyone eligible to be elected to the National Council, essentially meaning any Austrian national over the age of 18. In practice, a Chancellor is unable to govern without the confidence of the National Council. For this reason, the Chancellor usually is the leader of the largest party in the National Council, or the senior partner in a coalition government. A notable exception to this occurred after the 1999 election. The Freedom Party won the most seats and went into coalition with the People's Party. While this would have normally made Freedom Party leader Jörg Haider Chancellor, he was deemed too controversial to be a member of the Cabinet, let alone Chancellor. He thus stepped aside in favour of People's Party leader Wolfgang Schüssel.
  
  There are no term limits for the Chancellor. As a matter of constitutional convention, the Chancellor usually offers their resignation to the President upon dissolution of the National Council. The President usually declines the offer of resignation and directs the Chancellor and the cabinet to operate as a caretaker government until a new National Council is in session and a new majority leader has emerged. In fact, the constitution expressly encourages the President to use a Chancellor as the interim successor.
  
  A Chancellor is typically appointed or dismissed together with all of the ministers, which means the whole government. Technically, the President can only appoint ministers on advice of the Chancellor, so the Chancellor is appointed first. Having been sworn in, the Chancellor presents the President with a list of ministers; they will usually have been installed just minutes later. Neither Chancellors nor ministers need to be confirmed by either house of parliament; the appointees are fully capable of discharging the functions of their respective offices immediately after having been sworn in.
  
  The National Council can force the President to dismiss a Chancellor or a minister through a vote of no confidence. The President is constitutionally required to sack any minister whom the National Council wants gone. Opposition parties will sometimes table votes of no confidence against ministers, and occasionally whole cabinets, in order to demonstrate criticism; these votes had not been expected to pass. The first successful vote of no confidence in Austrian federal politics took place in May 2019 when Sebastian Kurz was ousted as Chancellor.