Austria's conservative Peoples Party (OVP) elected Finance Minister and Deputy Chancellor Wilhelm Molterer, 51, as its new party chairman on Saturday. Molterer was unopposed and gained 97 per cent backing in the vote at an extraordinary party congress in Salzburg, according to dpa. He succeeds former chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel as the new party leader after Schuessel stepped down from the post in January when a grand coalition led by the Social Democrats (SPO) and OVP was formed. The Salzburg meeting was the stage for a final farewell by Schuessel, 61, who had led the party for 12 years and was Austrian chancellor from February 2000 until January 2007. He stepped down in taking responsibility for the OVP's poor showing in the October 2006 national elections, when the conservatives finished behind the SPO. -- SPA
