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POLITICS

Austria announces national election date with far right ahead in polls

Austria will hold a parliamentary election on September 29th, conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced, with the Alpine nation's far-right FPOe party ahead in the polls.

Published: 12 June 2024 08:52 CEST
Austria announces national election date with far right ahead in polls
Austrian current Chancellor is Karl Nehammer from Austria's People Party, ÖVP. (Photo by Joe Klamar / AFP)

On Sunday, Austria’s Freedom Party (FPOe) won the country’s EU elections, the first time it has won a nationwide ballot.

The anti-immigrant FPOe is also expected to win September’s vote, leading the polls with an estimated 26 to 31 percent of the vote.

The date of the election will be approved by the cabinet on Wednesday.

“Tomorrow’s meeting of the Council of Ministers will set 29 September as the date for the national elections”, Nehammer wrote on X.

Following Sunday’s election, in which his ruling conservative People’s Party (OeVP) came second with 24.5 percent, Nehammer said he had heard the voters’ message.

He added he would seek to address their concerns ahead of the national vote, including cracking down on illegal migration.

A win in September would put the FPOe — which was founded in the 1950s by former Nazis — in pole position to form a government.

But experts say it might prove difficult for the FPOe to find partners to form a majority to govern, as a record number of parties are expected to make it into parliament.

For the first time in Austria, it could take a coalition of three parties to form a majority government.

The FPOe has been part of a ruling coalition several times but has never governed.

After a slump in popularity in 2019, the party has since bounced back, having seized on discontent over the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic, as well as soaring inflation and migration.

The OeVP currently governs Austria in a coalition with the Greens.

But their approval ratings have plummeted, with the conservatives polling at about 21 percent.

The coalition has repeatedly clashed over economic interests and climate policy.

In 2019, the previous government coalition between the conservatives — then led by chancellor Sebastian Kurz — and the FPOe collapsed in a spectacular corruption scandal.

But Kurz was re-elected and formed a new government in 2020, this time with the Greens, before stepping down in 2021 amid further graft allegations.

Nehammer succeeded Kurz as chancellor shortly afterwards.

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POLITICS

Austrian in Russia spying probe freed from detention

An Austrian court on Wednesday ordered a former intelligence officer suspected of spying for Russia released from detention, as investigators continue probing the case.

Published: 26 June 2024 16:22 CEST
Austrian in Russia spying probe freed from detention

Egisto Ott — a former agent of the now-defunct Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT) — was arrested in late March.

He was accused of “systematically” providing information to the Russian secret services, allegations that have shaken the nation.

The Vienna high court ordered Ott’s release, saying in a statement that there was no risk of him committing crimes once he was released. However, it added that he remained under investigation for suspected crimes.

Ott was suspended from his post in 2017 amid spying allegations and briefly arrested in 2021 on these same accusations.

He was detained in March after London said his name had come up in written messages exchanged between a suspected spy arrested in Britain and Jan Marsalek.

READ ALSO: Austrian ex-minister exiled in Russia denies she is ‘Kremlin agent’

Marsalek, the Austrian former chief operating officer of payments firm Wirecard, fled Germany in 2020—reportedly to Russia—over fraud allegations following the company’s spectacular collapse.

Based on the seized messages, Ott was accused of passing the smartphone data of three senior officials to Russia in exchange for payment.

According to the arrest warrant obtained by AFP, he is also accused of having supplied a laptop containing confidential documents.

Spying on Russia critics

Suspected of having helped Marsalek, Ott is accused, too, of having spied on Russia critics.

They included Christo Grozev, a journalist with the Bellingcat investigative website who was investigating Moscow’s spy networks. He left Vienna after his apartment was broken into.

Contacted by AFP before his most recent arrest, Ott denied any accusation of spying for Russia.

Since his arrest, information from the prosecution has leaked, according to which moles close to the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) are still operating in Vienna.

READ ALSO: Austria’s spy arrest puts Cold War spotlight back on Vienna

The FPOe used to have a “cooperation pact” with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s party.

It governed Austria as a junior partner in a coalition government from 2017 to 2019, and polls suggest it could win the national elections in September.

The authorities raided the country’s intelligence service during the current FPOe leader Herbert Kickl’s tenure as interior minister in 2018, seriously damaging its reputation.

After Ott’s arrest, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer called for heightened security in the country.

The EU country of nine million has traditionally seen itself as a bridge between the East and West, but in recent years, has been rocked by several cases centred on suspected spying for Moscow.

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