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Austria’s ruling coalition soldiers on after fight to near-death By Reuters



© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who’s beneath investigation on suspicion of corruption offences, leaves after giving a press release on the federal chancellery in Vienna, Austria October 9, 2021. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

By Francois Murphy and Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich

VIENNA (Reuters) -Austria’s ruling coalition soldiered on on Sunday after Chancellor Sebastian Kurz stop https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/austrias-kurz-says-stepping-down-chancellor-2021-10-09 to maintain it alive, however a prime newspaper likened his future function in parliament to Russian chief Vladimir Putin’s stint as prime minister in identify solely.

Prosecutors positioned Kurz and 9 others beneath investigation https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/prosecutors-raid-austrian-conservatives-hq-fresh-headache-kurz-2021-10-06 final week on suspicion of corruption offences, as a part of what they think is the usage of public funds to provide manipulated polling and newspaper protection beneficial to Kurz.

Kurz denies wrongdoing, however text-message exchanges which might be a part of the investigation and have been revealed in Austrian media have already tarnished the 35-year-old’s picture.

The junior coalition occasion, the Greens, had demanded Kurz’s head over the investigation, and his resignation announcement on Saturday night glad them. He’ll, nonetheless, stay chief of his conservative occasion and turn out to be its prime lawmaker, positions through which he can hold calling the photographs in authorities.

Kurz’s designated successor is Overseas Minister Alexander Schallenberg, a profession diplomat, relative political novice and shut ally of Kurz’s who has defended his exhausting line on immigration. Schallenberg is because of be sworn in on Monday.

“This tactical manoeuvre is harking back to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who gave option to Dmitry Medvedev solely to take over once more,” influential tabloid each day Kronen Zeitung mentioned in an evaluation, including that Kurz deliberate to go away the highest job just for a restricted time.

Putin, who had been president from 2000, was prime minister beneath Medvedev in 2008-2012 after which returned to the presidency. A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable from the time mentioned Medvedev “performs Robin to Putin’s Batman”.

Kurz mentioned he deliberate to battle the allegations in opposition to him however left open whether or not he intends to return as chancellor.

“We wish to make it to the top of this parliament,” the Greens’ parliamentary chief Sigi Maurer informed nationwide broadcaster ORF, referring to the present five-year parliament that runs till 2024.

“I can rule out that he would come again as chancellor throughout this authorities time period,” she added.

It stays to be seen how badly the spat has broken the coalition. Maurer mentioned she hoped the coalition would return to “calmer waters”.

Kurz has been undisputed inside his occasion till now and was reappointed as its chief in August with 99.4% help.

“Sebastian Kurz is chancellor within the shadows,” the chief of the opposition Social Democrats, Pamela Rendi-Wagner, informed a information convention on Saturday night time, including that Kurz would “proceed to tug the strings”.

HYPOCRISY

A star amongst Europe’s conservatives, Kurz grew to become one of many continent’s youngest leaders in 2017 when he shaped a coalition with the far-right Freedom Get together that collapsed in scandal in 2019. Parliament sacked him however he gained the snap election that adopted and shaped the present coalition.

Two central options of Kurz’s campaigns have been what he calls a “new model” of politics that he says doesn’t contain smearing opponents, and opposing the standard centrist alliance between his occasion and the Social Democrats on the grounds that it has led to impasse.

Austrian media on Friday reported a textual content message alternate from June 2016, when such a centrist coalition was in place and Kurz was overseas minister, exhibiting Kurz and a celebration loyalist then on the Finance Ministry in search of to dam a authorities daycare initiative in order that the then authorities couldn’t declare credit score for it.

That sort of obvious hypocrisy – inflicting the impasse he mentioned he was preventing even when as occasion chief he ended that coalition in 2017 – may harm Kurz politically, and he mentioned that with hindsight he would phrase some texts in another way.

“A few of them are messages I might undoubtedly not formulate that means once more, however I’m however a person with feelings and in addition with faults,” Kurz mentioned in his resignation announcement on Saturday.

Prosecutors say they think officers within the conservative-led Finance Ministry used state funds to pay for manipulated polling and protection beneficial to Kurz to look in a newspaper as of 2016, when he was vying to turn out to be occasion chief.

Kurz says the accusations in opposition to him are false and lots of the allegations contain attainable crimes by others, not him.





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