Government crisis in Austria: Briefly more and more under pressure

Austria’s government crisis is coming to a head: Chancellor Kurz is coming under increasing pressure because of new corruption investigations. The opposition demands his resignation. Thousands are demonstrating on the streets of the country.

In Austria, in view of the new corruption investigations against Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the pressure on the conservative head of government is growing. Kurz’s green coalition partners questioned the Chancellor’s ability to act, and the opposition called for his resignation.

Kurz himself strongly resisted the allegations. He does not understand why “I should always be to blame” when injustice is done somewhere, he said on ORF.

Searches in the Chancellery and the ÖVP party headquarters

On Wednesday it became known that the public prosecutor for white-collar crime in Vienna was investigating Kurz and nine other suspects and three organizations on suspicion of infidelity, corruption and bribery. Offices in the Chancellery and the ÖVP party headquarters were searched.

The affair is about the suspicion that surveys that were useful for Kurz’s career were financed by bogus invoices from taxpayers’ money and published in the newspaper “Austria”. In return, according to media reports, the Ministry of Finance placed and paid for lucrative advertisements in the paper. According to the APA, most of the allegations against Kurz relate to the time before he became ÖVP boss and then chancellor in 2017. Kurz was previously foreign minister.

Opposition parties are calling for a short resignation

The opposition parties SPÖ, FPÖ and Neos unanimously demanded the resignation of the Chancellor on Thursday. This could no longer exercise his office “without harming Austria,” said SPÖ leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner, according to the APA news agency. FPÖ boss Herbert Kickl called Kurz “intolerable”, Neos boss Beate Meinl-Reisinger called the chancellor “incapacitated”.

Parliament is expected to hold an extraordinary session next Tuesday. The parties could introduce a joint motion of censure.

Greens briefly question the ability to act

The Greens, with whom Kurz is forming a coalition at federal level, also increased the pressure on the Chancellor. “Against this background, the Federal Chancellor’s ability to act is called into question,” said Greens boss and Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler. He met with President Alexander Van der Bellen on Thursday, and from Friday he wants to discuss how to proceed with the other parliamentary parties.

Van der Bellen also received Kurz on Thursday. He previously stressed that he would continue to be ready for government cooperation with the Greens. The ÖVP – uninterruptedly involved in the Austrian government since 1987 – again stood behind Kurz. This is the “democratically legitimized Federal Chancellor of our republic”.

Thousands demonstrate

Kurz himself insisted on the presumption of innocence. There is no evidence at all that he was involved in influencing opinion polls, said Kurz on ORF. He could also “rule out a thousand percent” that he had made or received bogus invoices for surveys or was otherwise involved in them. He ruled out a resignation. “Of course,” he wants to remain Chancellor.

Several thousand demonstrators gathered in front of the ÖVP headquarters in Vienna on Thursday evening to call for Kurz to resign. They demanded “Kurz must go” and held up signs saying “Against Corruption”.

Against Kurz, investigations are already underway on suspicion of false testimony before a parliamentary committee of inquiry into the so-called Ibiza affair. In May 2019, the scandal led to a break in the governing coalition between Kurz’s ÖVP and the right-wing populist FPÖ and to early elections.