VIENNA (Reuters) – Austrian Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein resigned on Thursday, the second top official to step down within a year under the strain of tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
Mueckstein, a member of the Greens party that is junior partner to Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservatives, in April replaced Rudolph Anschober, who resigned due to exhaustion.
“I have felt in the past months how hard that all has been,” the Oesterreich paper quoted him as saying, adding he had been subject of threats and could not leave his home without police protection.
Greens leader and Vice-Chancelor Werner Kogler said he would propose Johannes Rauch, an official in Vorarlberg province, as new health minister.
Austria, which angered thousands by passing a law making COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory, plans to lift most of its remaining pandemic restrictions by March 5.
(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
