Headed by a former chancellor who had been ousted in a parliamentary vote of no confidence and made a comeback by winning the 2019 legislative election, it marks an alliance of a centre-right Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) with the centre-left The Greens as junior partner in the national government; it was the only such coalition in Europe until June 2020.

The Second Kurz government includes one cabinet member who is not a native Austrian, but came to the country as a refugee when she was a child, an element of personal biography she shares with President Alexander Van der Bellen.

The novel form of the political partnership paved the way for the ÖVP to maintain its conservative line on immigration, but also put Austria on the forefront of the fight against climate change, with a Green minister in charge of that portfolio and an action plan towards carbon neutrality on a pace faster than the rest of the EU.

On 4 January 2020, more than 93 percent of the delegates at a special Green Congress convened in Salzburg backed the deal hammered out by the negotiating teams of the two parties and their leaders in more than two months of bargaining that covered the full spectrum of public policies, rather than just environmental issues.

[3][4][5] In the floor debate, misgivings were expressed about too many concessions having been made in reaching a deal on a joint government programme that both parties and their respective supporters in the electorate can agree on.

Assuming responsibility for governing the country with the ÖVP offered the Greens an opportunity to participate directly in the shaping of the future course of public policy for the very first time.

[6] The cabinet consists of:[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Under the People's Party, The Greens coalition plans, Austria will aim to become carbon neutral by 2040, a decade earlier than an EU-wide target, a pledge for all electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030, as well as more spending on public transport.