The Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who has come under massive legal and political pressure, announced his withdrawal from the Chancellery on Saturday evening. The incumbent Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg is to take over his post. For a short time he will be the club chairman, that is, the chairman of the ÖVP parliamentary group, but will also remain the ÖVP boss. The cabinet also apparently remains unchanged.
Kurz had categorically ruled out a withdrawal on Friday and emphasized that he wanted to stay in office, even though the green coalition partner had withdrawn his trust and demanded an “impeccable personality” in his place. If the 35-year-old had not announced his move to the parliamentary group, the opposition parties and the Greens would have expressed their distrust on Tuesday at a special session of parliament. A coalition of four made up of the SPÖ, Greens, Neos and the FPÖ would not have been ruled out.
At a press conference at the Federal Chancellery, Kurz said he would “make room” to prevent chaos. The coalition partner has decided to take a clear position against him. The country needs stability, however, and he considers a possible four-party government, which could depend on the mercy of the FPÖ boss Herbert Kickl, to be irresponsible.
Green leader and Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler welcomed the resignation and signaled the continuation of the coalition with the ÖVP. “In view of the current situation, I think this is the right step for future government work with responsibility for Austria and Austria’s reputation abroad,” said Kogler. The cooperation with Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg has so far been very constructive.
From the opposition’s point of view, Kurz’s move is a move, but not a change of system. “Sebastian Kurz is fleeing to parliamentary immunity,” said the head of the right-wing FPÖ, Herbert Kickl. SPÖ chairman Pamela Rendi-Wagner wrote on Twitter: “Sebastian Kurz is leaving as chancellor, the system will remain Kurz. Kurz will become shadow chancellor and will continue to spin the threads.” The head of the liberal Neos, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, said that Kurz would continue to keep all the strings in hand.
The allegations against Kurz came from 2016, he said. They were wrong and he would now use the time to refute them. He is now experiencing what many top politicians at home and abroad have experienced and would have wished that the presumption of innocence also applied to him. Many supporters had told him, so Kurz, that he should “not put up with it”. But he puts the country above his own person, even if that is not easy for him.
The end for short was expected after the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption (WKStA) had the ÖVP headquarters and the Chancellery searched in a series of raids on Wednesday morning. In a wide-ranging investigation, which ultimately involves the allegation of corruption in advertisements and manipulated surveys against bogus invoices, i.e. about purchased reports, Kurz is listed as a suspect alongside his closest circle of advisors. The public prosecutor is investigating allegations of breach of trust, corruption and bribery.
The Greens had declared Kurz incapable of office
The ÖVP had assured for days that they would only continue to govern with Kurz and clear up the allegations that were constructed. But the Greens had declared Kurz incapable of office and action. In the end, so it is heard, the pressure on the outgoing Chancellor is said to have come primarily from the ÖVP farmers’ union.
Alexander Schallenberg, who is to take over the office until further notice, has been working in the Austrian Foreign Ministry since 1997. He was press spokesman for several foreign ministers, headed the staff unit for strategic planning and later the European section. Schallenberg became foreign minister in the expert government under Brigitte Bierlein when the ÖVP-FPÖ government broke up after the Ibiza scandal. He then stayed in office under turquoise-green.
It is expected that this coalition will continue to exist now that the ÖVP has met the conditions of the green partner. A year ago, Schallenberg caused irritation when he said in the debate about the fate of the refugees on the Greek island of Moria that the “shouting about distribution” could not be the solution.
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