Victoria Kennedy starts her mission in Austria
The USA has an ambassador in Austria again. Less than a year after the change of power in Washington, the new head of mission Victoria Kennedy (67) landed in Vienna yesterday.
“Austria is a very special place,” said the widow of the long-time Democratic US Senator Ted Kennedy and the sister-in-law of the legendary US President John F. Kennedy in their first press statement. Kennedy will officially take up her post after handing over her credentials to Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen. The appointment in the Hofburg is set for next Wednesday.
The post of ambassador in Vienna had been vacant since US President Joe Biden took office on January 20 of the previous year, because the mandate of head of mission Trevor Traina ended with the change of power in Washington. This war was won by Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump.
“Wonderful Land”
Kennedy said yesterday that she visited Austria for the first time as a young student. “When I discovered my love for opera in Vienna and listened to music in Salzburg, I never thought that I would one day return to this beautiful country as a representative of the USA.” Like her predecessor Traina, she announced that she would visit all nine federal states. “I want to meet the Austrians where they live,” said the Democrat, who comes from the southern state of Louisiana. She will also work to strengthen bilateral relations.
Victoria Kennedy is considered the most important place of the influential Kennedys political clan. The successful lawyer played a major role in the 1994 Senate election campaign when her husband barely fought off Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Victoria not only organized donation dinners for Ted Kennedy, but also put him in calmer waters privately after he was discredited by affairs and alcohol problems. Only then was he able to become an icon of the Democrats in the US Senate, in which he represented the east coast state of Massachusetts for a total of 47 years until his death in 2009.
Victoria Kennedy quit her job as a lawyer in 1997 to be her husband’s political advisor. She founded the Edward (“Ted”) M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, a non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting democracy. As a senator, however, she did not want to succeed her husband. Instead, she lobbyed for issues such as gun control, women’s rights and integration. Under US President Barack Obama, she is also involved in the integration of general health insurance and in the “Catholics for Obama” association.