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EXPLAINED: Why was Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz forced to resign?

Austria's top diplomat Alexander Schallenberg takes over as chancellor on Monday as the ruling party tries to emerge from a corruption scandal that cost the job of one of Europe's youngest leaders.

Published: 11 October 2021 11:56 CEST
Updated: 11 October 2021 13:58 CEST
Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
Austria's former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz had defended the benefit cuts. STEFANIE LOOS / AFP

Sebastian Kurz, a 35-year-old once feted as a “whizz kid”, said late Saturday he was quitting the top job after being implicated in a corruption scandal.

Schallenberg, 52, will be sworn in by President Alexander Van der Bellen at 1:00 pm (1100 GMT).

Kurz’s centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP) and their junior Green coalition partners are hoping to move on from the scandal and serve out the rest of their term until 2024.

However, the fallout from last week’s events may continue to reverberate.

On Wednesday prosecutors raided several ÖVP-linked locations, including the chancellory and party headquarters, over allegations that between 2016 and 2018 finance ministry resources were used to finance “partially manipulated opinion polls that served an exclusively party-political interest”.

Prosecutors allege that payments were made to an unnamed media company — widely understood to be the Oesterreich tabloid, which was also raided on Wednesday — in return for publishing these surveys.

The offences were allegedly committed to help Kurz, already a government minister at the beginning of the period in question, take over the leadership of the ÖVP. 

‘Kurz system’

While Kurz initially insisted there was no reason for him to resign — and continues to vehemently protest his innocence — he then reversed course, saying he was putting the country before his own interests.

But many say Kurz bowed to pressure from the Greens and from within his own party. Kurz’s critics point out he will still be head of the ÖVP and will now sit as leader of its bloc in parliament — an ideal position from which to exercise influence as a “shadow chancellor”.

The opposition parties say the “Kurz system” will carry on unhindered through the presence of ministers loyal to him as well as high-ranking employees who look set to continue in post — some of whom are also suspects in the corruption inquiry.

Until now Schallenberg had served as foreign minister under Kurz and is widely seen as being loyal.

The latest scandal to hit Kurz adds to a list of corruption allegations against the ÖVP and several of its prominent figures, including Finance Minister Gernot Bluemel.

Those allegations surfaced in the aftermath of the so-called “Ibiza-gate” affair that in 2019 brought down Kurz’s first government, a coalition between the ÖVP and the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe).

Despite that Kurz came out on top in elections in autumn 2019 and re-entered government, this time at the head of a coalition with the Greens.

Schallenberg’s replacement as Foreign Minister was announced by the ÖVP-controlled ministry on Monday as Michael Linhart, the current Austrian ambassador to France.

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POLITICS

EXPLAINED: How dangerous is Austria’s growing right-wing extremist movement?

Austrian police have warned right-wing extremist groups are becoming more active and that younger people are becoming more radicalised.

Published: 3 July 2024 17:35 CEST
EXPLAINED: How dangerous is Austria's growing right-wing extremist movement?

In June, an Austria-wide police operation against right-wing extremists found numerous Nazi objects, such as clothing with specific symbols and a considerable amount of data storage media were seized.

A total of 15 people between the ages of 16 and 57 were charged, most of them under the Prohibition Act, which criminalises National Socialist “reactivation”. Those charged were predominantly, but not exclusively, men.

The Ministry of the Interior announced that the operation against right-wing extremists was carried out as part of a “Joint Action Day” coordinated by the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence Service (DSN).

READ ALSO: What does Austria’s far-right win in the EU elections mean for foreigners?

The focus was on targeting extremist-motivated and violent individuals as well as people who spread right-wing extremist hate propaganda. Several buildings were raided at the same time as part of the operation. The evidence is currently being viewed and forensically evaluated.

According to authorities, right-wing extremist groups were generally becoming more active, and the risk of right-wing extremist-motivated acts was constantly on the rise.

Right wing groups are not united

The Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN) expressly warns of increased right-wing extremist tendencies, with the number of reports of right-wing extremist crimes rising from 928 in 2022 to 1208 in the previous year.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the activities of far-right groups were massively restricted, and some long-established far-right events disappeared and have not been held since. However, new extremist networks also formed online during the lockdown and are now becoming increasingly active.

However, there is no unified right-wing extremist scene in Austria, according to a report in the Der Standard newspaper. 

On the contrary, some groups are divided – for example, on which side to take in the Russian war against Ukraine. Some support Vladimir Putin, and others want to go to war as mercenaries for Ukraine, the report added.

After 13 house searches, the authorities seized dozens of rifles, submachine guns and pistols, as well as several Nazi memorabilia and drugs in Austria. (Copyright: BMI/Gerd PACHAUER)

How bad is the situation?

Extreme right-wing groups in Austria are often led by political beliefs that include ethnic nationalism, islamophobia, xenophobia, anti-semitism, racism, rejection of democratic and plural societies and more. They also usually have great affinity for firearms – which means they could pose a terror threat.

Since 2019, 41 deposits with large weapons and explosives have been found during raids against right-wing extremist suspects in Austria. Most of them were found in Lower Austria, Upper Austria and Salzburg – and in the vast majority of cases, the investigators also found “Nazi devotional objects”. 

Earlier in 2024, Austria’s Interior Ministry warned of a “noticeable influx” in the country’s extreme right scene.

“The so-called ‘New Right’ currently represents the greatest challenge in the area of right-wing extremism,” Austria’s interior ministry said in a statement at the time, naming the Identitarian Movement, a nationalistic and anti-immigration movement,  as part of this grouping.

READ ALSO: How much of a threat is Austria’s far-right Identitarian Movement?

There is currently a noticeable influx into the scene, although exact numbers are difficult to determine, it added.

The Austrian government has already stated it expects a rapid expansion of right-wing extremist trends. 

In particular, “the expansion of martial arts networks with a friendlier and less militant appearance is expected to attract the interest of young people across Europe”, the government wrote in its Constitutional Protection Report 2023. 

The authorities fear that this recruitment will lead to more violence, for example, against Jews, people from other ethnic backgrounds, Muslims and the LGBTIQ community.

READ ALSO: The imam and rabbi’s friendship that defies stereotypes in Austria

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