Bosnian Alma Zadic to be new Austrian Justice Minister

NEWS 02.01.202011:38
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According to Austrian media outlets, Bosnian Alma Zadic, born in Tuzla, central Bosnia, will be the new Austrian Justice Minister.

The 35-year-old will thus be the youngest Justice Minister in the history of this country.

She escaped Tuzla in 1994, while the war was still raging in Bosnia, and fled to Austria, where the graduated law. After graduating, she went to New York to study at Columbia University.

Upon her return from the US, she worked as an attorney for seven years in Austria.

She was the target of many verbal attacks because of her origin, and so in June 2018 an MP from the Austrian People’s Party (OVP), told her to “Stay out of it because this is not Bosnia,” during a discussion on the protection of intelligence officials.

The MP who was later identified as Johann Raedler said after the incident that he meant nothing wrong and that he “has many positive things in common with Bosnia.”

According to the Austrian daily Der Standard, Zadic’s nomination for the post before the Green Party is only a formality, because she enjoys great respect from the party’s top officials.

Her election to the function will also be symbolic because she will be the first person with an immigrant background to occupy the post of Austria’s Justice Minister.

Johann Slater, the EU’s Special Representative and Head of the EU Delegation to Bosnia who is also from Austria, congratulated Zadic on her nomination on his tweeter account.

Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz’s conservative party and the Green party have agreed to form a coalition which would mean Kurz’s return to the political scene as Prime Minister and the Green Party’s first participation in Austria’s government, officials from both parties confirmed.