Austrian politics: stable, slow-moving; a paragon of cooperation and democratic discussion
Until the 17th of May, that is.
Overnight, the political climate has become dominated by drug and corruption scandals, votes of no-confidence, and power grabs. The entire government has been dissolved and stalwart allies have become bitter enemies. How did it come to this? It all started in Ibiza….
But first, we must set the scene.
Austria has a parliamentary government with both a chancellor and a president. The president is the head of state and is chosen by direct vote. The real executive power lies, however, with the parliament and the chancelor.
In the 2017 election, Sebastian Kurz and his newly-reformed ÖVP (Austrian People’s Party) were able to secure 31.5% of the votes and became the strongest party in parliament. Of the two possible coalition partners, only Heinz-Christian Strache and his right-wing FPÖ (Austrian Freedom Party) were willing to work together with Kurz. The new government was big step to the right and was heavily criticized by many analysts overseas.
Jump forward to May 2019, the weekend before the European elections. THIS (hyperlink) unbelievable video starts making the rounds. Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache and the leader of the FPÖ in parliament, Johann Gudenus, meet a Russian „investor“ in a Villa in Ibiza. Strache promises the investor, the alleged niece of one of Russia’s richest men, a kickback of government contracts. In exchange, she would have to buy the KRONEN-Zeitung, an influential daily newspaper, and push the FPÖ to the first place in the 2017 election. Corruption and an attack on the free media- all this while sitting next to a line of cocaine.
By the next day, Strache had resigned as vice-chancellor and party leader. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz also called for the dismissal of Herbert Kickl, the FPÖ Home Secretary, claiming that he would not be able to fairly investigate his own party. In a show of solidarity, the other FPÖ-Ministers collectively resigned.
This is where things get tricky for Chancellor Kurz. After speaking with President Alexander Van Der Bellen, the two leaders called for a new election come September. The next problem was the government itself. After the Minister of Finance, Hartwig Löger, was promoted new vice-chancellor, Kurz needed four new ministers. He nominated four independent experts to serve in Domestic Affairs, Defence, Labour and Social Affairs, and Traffic, Innovation, and Technology. The opposition was, quite understandedly, not amused with this turn of events. Even though the ÖVP only has 62 out of 183 seats in parliament (29%), the entire government now consisted of ÖVP politicians and their chosen experts.
Peter Pilz, the founder of one of the smaller opposition parties, was the first to call for a vote of no-confidence in Chancellor Kurz. The largest opposition party, the SPÖ (Social-democrats), smelled blood in the water and extended the vote of no-confidence to include the entire government. Normally, the opposition could never attain a majority vote, but the atmosphere in parliament had changed dramatically. The FPÖ and its 51 seats blamed Kurz for removing them from office and were only too happy to return the favour.
On Tuesday the 28th of May Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and the entire government were removed from office. President Alexander Van der Bellen wishes to have a new government sworn in within the week. Until then, the current government will perform the duties of office. The former Minister of Finance, Hartwig Löger, has been catapulted from vice-chancellor to the leader of government until a new chancellor has been sworn in.
A very long summary of a complicated situation.
A few thoughts and interesting developments:
The Ibiza video was allegedly filmed by a Viennese lawyer and a detective- after trying unsuccessfully to sell the video, they apparently leaked the film to the German (not Austrian) media.
The video was part of an elaborate set-up: the Russian „niece“ is in fact a Bosnian student who was being prompted by someone off-screen. Who laid the trap? 1. An intelligence agency, possibly even the Austrian one, which was under the control of the SPÖ at the time. 2. One of the many anti-right groups. The German satirist Jan Böhmermann, had seen the video weeks before the official release.
The leader of the FPÖ, Heinz-Christian Strache, has been trying (I would argue unsuccessfully) to portray himself as the victim of a political coup. After laying down all domestic political offices, he actually received enough preferential votes in the European election to be eligible for a seat in the European Parlament. (Much to the chagrin of many party members.)
President Alexander Van der Bellen has been a paragon of calm and order during the crisis. As he has repeatedly stated, impeachment and new elections are part of the democratic process and are clearly explained in the Constitution.
Van der Bellen wants to have a new chancellor in place by Friday. The new chancellor and his government will be purely administrative in nature and will not be allowed to make any binding legislative decisions.
The impeachment of Chancellor Kurz has netted him a lot of sympathy points. He and his party stand to gain a lot of ground in the coming September elections.