“The varnish is peeling off for Sebastian Kurz”. That was the title of my comment in New Europe about the Austrian Chancellor in April. Last week, his political career ended in turmoil after new judicial procedures against him and eight others close to him related to corruption and distorted opinion polls became public.
Three opposition parties announced a vote of no confidence in parliament, and even the coalition partner of Kurz, the Green party, wanted to join in. With a sure majority against him, there was only one way out – Kurz, who is only 35 years old and who was Austria’s youngest chancellor at the age of31, stepped down and opted for the still influential position as leader of the fraction of his party in the Austrian Parliament. He remains head of the biggest party in Austria – the Volkspartei (ÖVP).
As all his cabinet members, several governors of provinces and other party leaders remained loyal to Kurz, he was able to choose his own successor. Foreign Minister, Alexander Schallenberg, a career diplomat, was sworn in by Federal President, Alexander Van der Bellen, a former green politician. Van der Bellen criticized the damage that the latest scandal caused iin Austria and even excused himself for having been involved in talks with Kurz.
Kurz used astonishingly rude swearwords about his predecessor, Wolfgang Mitterlehner, whom he ousted in 2017, also with the help of distorted opinion polls paid by the ministry of finance and later published in an Austrian tabloid Österreich. Kurz entered the office as chancellor with what he called ‘new politics’, but that image was quickly discredited and discarded.
In Austria, and in the EU institutions, he was long considered a political shooting star. German media, in particular, courted him because he dared to criticize his German party-family colleague, Angela Merkel, about Berlin’s refugee policy. In 2016, Kurz claimed to have closed the so-called ‘Balkan Route’ for the mainly Syrian and Afghan refugees that were arriving from Turkey and heading to Germany and Sweden.
The downfall of the political wunderkind started in 2019 when his first coalition with the populist right-wing FPÖ ended after a scandal involving secretly recorded videos of conversations between the then-party leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, and the alleged niece of a Russian oligarch in Ibiza. Strache promised the woman a post and business contracts if she supported him and even announced that heads would roll at Austria’s public radio and TV outlets and in Austria’s biggest daily Kronen Zeitung.
After Strache was forced to resign, the entire Kurz-led government failed to survive a confidence vote. A cabinet of experts took over until new elections were held in the autumn of 2019. Kurz gained the largest number of votes and, in early 2020, for the first time in Austria’s history, entered into a coalition with the Greens.
During the Covid-Pandemic, Kurz initially cut a good figure. He called for the first hard lockdown in the spring of 2020 and addressed the public in almost daily TV appearances together with the Green health minister, Rudolf Anschober, who later resigned because of health problems. Kurz complained about what he called ‘bazaar methods’ in Brussels for the acquisition of vaccines.
Kurz got bad marks in the press when he attacked EU politics using populist language and even asked for more tolerance towards the governments of Hungary and Poland. Now, after his sudden departure as Chancellor, there has been speculation about the extent to which Kurz will continue to pull the strings as parliamentary party leader.
Schallenberg caused astonishment when he described the accusations of the corruption Prosecutor’s Office against Kurz as unfounded and announced an early rehabilitation for Kurz. This earned him harsh comments in Austria’s leading newspapers, who said that he had missed a chance to free himself from Kurz’s influence and thus demonstrate his independence.
Schallenberg, however, announced that he would continue to coordinate the daily governmental tasks with Kurz. As foreign minister, Schallenberg had always followed Kurz’s course, especially in the former’s hard-line migration policy. After the withdrawal of US troops, for example, he strictly rejected the admission of refugees from Afghanistan. Schallenberg also brusquely rejected appeals to take in women and children from the Moria refugee camp on Lesbos. Instead, he announced “help on the ground”, above all through a day-care centre for children. Only recently, however, media proved that the number of children cared for by Austrian associations such as SOS Children’s Villages had actually decreased.
Schallenberg has since announced that there would be no further changes in the cabinet. However, some of Kurz’s closest collaborators in the Chancellery involved in the allegations have gone on leave. Although a parliamentary investigation into the consequences of the “Ibiza Affair”, which uncovered strange politically-motivated personnel decisions in the first ÖVP-FPÖ government in state-related companies such as “Casinos Austria” and the holding company “ÖBAG”, came to an end in the summer, opposition parties have now already announced a new investigation into the judicial accusations against Kurz.
The legal proceedings are reportedly to continue for months, which means that Kurz will continue to be at the centre of the investigations in his new function in parliament, particularly after he announced his intention to waive parliamentary immunity.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of ÖVP politicians are ruling out his return to the chancellery, especially provincial governors. This shows that Kurz has already lost trust in his party, which is contrary to all other protestations.
Meanwhile, Schallenberg deliberately chose Brussels as the destination of his first trip abroad. He announced that Austria will remain a reliable partner in the EU and added that Austria will be a “good but, if necessary, partner.”
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed Schallenberg to the European Commission and spoke of a “strong signal” that he sent while he was in Brussels. Von der Leyen said Schallenberg was “an expert on Europe” and added that she was looking forward to a good cooperation with the new Chancellor.
Austria’s government wants to play its full part. Earlier in October, Vienna passed an “eco-social tax reform” in which companies and private individuals will have to pay more green taxes for energy consumption and CO2 footprint.
