Austrian minister prominent in migrant crisis leaving job

VIENNA – Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, a prominent figure in Europe’s migrant crisis as her country introduced refugee limits that set off the closure of the Balkan route, is stepping down from the job.

Mikl-Leitner’s conservative Austrian People’s Party announced late Sunday that the minister will become deputy governor of Lower Austria province. She will be replaced as interior minister by Wolfgang Sobotka, currently a top official in Lower Austria.

Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner said Mikl-Leitner had informed him “that she sees her future in Lower Austria.” He praised her for bringing about “an end to the policy of waving through (migrants) to central Europe.”

He said that Sobotka, who is to be sworn in later this month, will provide the “necessary continuity.”