22-year-old becomes Austria’s youngest mayor

Stefan Krammer, 22, has become Austria’s youngest mayor after being elected to lead Heugraben, a village of 220 residents in Burgenland, ORF reported.

Krammer, who has been active in local politics since 2022, said he wanted to show that young people could take on responsibility and make a difference. He also hoped to encourage others to get involved, saying that while failure was possible, not contributing would be worse.

Austria currently has 194 mayors under 40, including 18 under 30. The highest number is in Lower Austria, with 53, followed by Upper Austria with 42, Tyrol with 30, Styria with 29, Burgenland with 16, Vorarlberg with 10, Salzburg with nine and Carinthia with five.

Krammer is not the youngest person ever to hold the office. Fabio Halb was elected mayor of Mühlgraben, also in Burgenland, at the age of 20 in 2017. He remains in office and is also a Social Democratic Party member of the state parliament. Austria’s youngest female mayor is Nicole Thaller, 30, of Hofkirchen im Traunkreis.

Mayors under 40 are due to meet in Graz on November 12 and 13 for a cross-party, cross-state networking event.