New IDU Honorary Advisory Board Members Announced
We are pleased to announce that the IDU Honorary Advisory Board has welcomed three new members. Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Former Prime Ministers Scott Morrison (Australia) and Janez Janša (Slovenia) have agreed to join this IDU body and support the leadership in growing the global organization.
Sebastian Kurz served as Chancellor from 2017 to 2019 and a second term from 2020 to 2022. He was the youngest Chancellor in Austrian history and the youngest head of government in the world. He led and modernized the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) from 2017 to 2022. Previously, he was Foreign Minister of Austria for four years and State Secretary for Integration for over two years. Prior to his successful run for the Viennese State Parliament in 2010, he was a longtime member of the Young People’s Party (JVP) and remained their chairman for nearly a decade.
Janez Janša served three times as Prime Minister of Slovenia, a position he held three times. Since 1993, Janša has led the Slovenian Democratic Party, which has emerged as the pre-eminent Slovenian conservative party. Janša served as Minister of Defence from 1990 to 1994, a post he had also held during the Slovenian War of Independence. Janša served as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2008 and again became prime minister in 2012-2013, following an early election called December 2011. Despite his party winning a plurality of votes in the 2018 Slovenian parliamentary election, Janša was initially passed over as a Prime Minister. After a period in opposition, he was again selected as Prime Minister-designate in March 2020 following the resignation of the previous government. His third term ended on 13 May 2022.
Scott Morrison served as the 30th Prime Minster of Australia between 2018 and 2022. He assumed office in August 2018 upon his election as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2007. After the Liberal-National coalition’s victory in the 2013 election, Morrison was appointed Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, then the Minister of Social Service, and finally Treasurer. In 2018, he became the Prime Minister and led his coalition to a surprise victory in 2019 elections. In the 2022 Australian federal election the Morrison government was defeated.
The IDU is honored to have such experienced and outstanding political figures supporting us as we build an ever-stronger alliance of centre-right parties globally. Thank you, Prime Ministers Morrison and Janša, as well as Chancellor Kurz!