Allegations of corruption against Kurz: Austria’s coalition begins to crumble

The suspicions against Austria’s Chancellor Kurz for alleged corruption weigh ever more heavily. As a result, the coalition with the Greens, which is stable in itself, is increasingly shaken.

The protests of the party base as well as from the ranks of the Green MPs against the soothing statement by their party leader, Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler, were evidently very clear.

On Wednesday after the cabinet meeting and after the investigation against Austria’s Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and people from his immediate environment became known, Kogler expressed himself cautiously: The Greens would strictly pay attention to the independence of the judiciary.

Accusations by coalition partner ÖVP, according to which the raids in the Federal Chancellery, in the party headquarters of the ÖVP and in the Ministry of Finance were a “show effect” of the economic and corruption prosecutor’s office, are misplaced. Especially since the judicial review and approval were given before the house searches.

Then the Green Vice-Chancellor emphasized: “In this respect, we will apply the standard precisely to whether the government is able to act – and we consider that to be fully given.”

U-turn of the Greens

The next day, the Greens turned about: They question the ability of their coalition partner to act. In a written communication from Kogler, which was circulated in the morning, the chairman of the Greens writes: With the new investigation against Chancellor Kurz, a new dimension has been reached. The impression is devastating. The facts must be fully clarified.

Kogler stated: “We cannot go back to the agenda, the Federal Chancellor’s ability to act is questioned against this background.”

What’s next?

At the same time, Kogler and the leader of the Greens in parliament, Sigrid Maurer, invited the heads of the other groups to “talks about how to proceed”. An appointment had also been made with Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen.

At the request of the ARD studios Vienna the Greens declared that the federal party did not want to give any interviews or statements today. The Greens were also cornered by the announcement of the three opposition parties in the National Council – SPÖ, FPÖ and NEOS – to convene a special session of the National Council. Federal Chancellor Kurz would then have to answer questions there.

How then would the Green MPs behave? The uncertainty may also have been responsible for the abrupt change of course by the green party leadership.

How stable is the coalition?

This is not good news for Chancellor Kurz. So far, the Greens have proven to be reliable, stable coalition partners despite all the political stomach aches on issues such as the admission of refugees.

Even during the first investigations by the economic and corruption prosecutor’s office on suspicion of false testimony before the parliamentary committee of inquiry to clarify the Ibiza affair, the green party leadership held back. You have to wait for the investigation. It is questionable how she would behave in the event of a possible charge against the Chancellor.

Illegal financing of your own advancement?

Because now the suspicions of the public prosecutor weigh much more heavily. It is about the background to the rapid rise of Kurz to head of the conservative People’s Party and later to become Chancellor. At that time, in 2016, Foreign Minister Kurz wanted to replace the then ÖVP boss and Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner as party chairman and to end the long coalition marriage with the Social Democrats in order to strive for the office of Federal Chancellor.

The central question is: Did Kurz illegally finance his political ascent to ÖVP boss and later to Chancellor with partly manipulated opinion polls and a 1.3 million euro deal with the tabloid “Austria” from the treasury of the Ministry of Finance, as the public prosecutor did supposed?

Suspicion of breach of trust, corruption and bribery

In the statement published on Wednesday by the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the suspicion of breach of trust, corruption and bribery against Kurz and nine other accused is justified, among other things:

… that between 2016 and at least 2018 budgetary funds from the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) were used to finance exclusively party-politically motivated, sometimes manipulated surveys by an opinion research company in the interests of a political party and its top functionary (s). These survey results were published (without being declared as an advertisement) in the editorial section of an Austrian daily newspaper and other media belonging to this group. In return – following the suspicion – the officials involved made payments to the media company as part of media and advertising cooperations. The payments for these cooperations were – according to the suspicion – essentially concealed consideration for the accused actually given the opportunity to influence the editorial reporting in this media company.

The tabloid newspaper “Austria”, owned by the Fellner brothers, denies the prosecution’s allegations.

“Of course I will stay in office”

Chancellor Kurz rejected the allegations on Wednesday evening in an almost 20-minute interview on ORF. “Of course” he remains in office:

All of these allegations that exist are directed against employees of the Ministry of Finance. I think we should take a closer look at whether these allegations are true at all. And I think that in Austria – if everyone raves about our rule of law – it would be good if the presumption of innocence continued to apply and not always the presumption of guilt.

He could not understand why he should “always be guilty of every injustice”. Even if it should turn out that for party purposes of the ÖVP opinion polls were paid for with funds from the finance ministry and reports were bought from the tabloid “Österreich” against advertisements of the ministry, there is “no indication” that he was in control .