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Scandal threatens to end Kurz’s second term as Austrian chancellor

“What is absolutely critical,” mentioned Sebastian Kurz as he threw his scandal-plagued far-right coalition companions out of workplace in 2019, “is the concept of abuse of energy, the concept of [misusing] taxpayers’ cash, and naturally, the [manipulation of] the media panorama in our nation.” 

Barely two years later, the Austrian chancellor is the central suspect in an alleged conspiracy involving the identical political malpractice.

On Wednesday, police raided ministries throughout Vienna and the headquarters of Kurz’s conservative Folks’s Occasion, triggering a political disaster that has engulfed the Austrian authorities and now threatens it with collapse.

Prosecutors are investigating whether or not Kurz and a gaggle of allies used faux invoices to illicitly channel €1.2m of taxpayers’ cash from the finance ministry to pay for beneficial media protection. Glowing headlines helped propel Kurz, from overseas minister to celebration chief to the chancellorship itself.

No fees have been made within the investigation.

However the scope of the suspicions and the proof that has been made public threaten to deliver Kurz’s second time period in workplace to an much more abrupt and controversial halt than his first.

Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz speaks to the media after a meeting with Austria’s President at Hofburg Palace in Vienna on October 7,
Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s chancellor, speaks to the media: the chancellor has pledged to combat the allegations © Herbert Neubauer/APA/AFP by way of Getty Photos

Two years in the past it was Kurz himself who pulled the plug, after his vice-chancellor, Heinz-Christian Strache, of the Freedom Occasion, was filmed soliciting Russian influence within the Austrian media. Now, it’s Austria’s Greens — Kurz’s new junior coalition partners — who could finish his chancellorship. With out them, the federal government doesn’t command a majority in parliament.

Kurz was once seen as a wunderkind of European politics, whose mixture of youth, gloss and opportunism provided a mannequin for different moribund conservative events throughout the continent. However his picture has now been tarnished.

“I’ve obtained no thought what the authorized end result goes to be, however when it comes to his picture, of his complete politics, that is actually dangerous information,” mentioned Thomas Hofer, an Austrian political guide. “You may sense the nervousness. It’s starting to seem like a theme.” 

Kurz’s ascent in Austrian politics had been exceptional for its velocity.

He turned a state secretary in 2011, having made a reputation for himself as a distinguished voice within the celebration’s youth motion. Inside two years, on the age of 27, he was Austria’s youngest ever overseas minister and already talked of as a future chief of the Folks’s Occasion. In Might 2017, he took over the chairmanship. That December, after an election by which help for the Folks’s Occasion surged on account of his hardline anti-immigration platform, he was appointed chancellor for the primary time.

The investigation introduced by Austria’s central state prosecutor for financial crimes and corruption (WKStA) this week, presents another historical past.

Its 104-page warrant, printed by Austrian newspapers, incorporates dozens of textual content messages and communications between Kurz and key celebration allies in 2016 and 2017. They embody a collection of exchanges between Kurz and Thomas Schmid, the overall secretary within the finance ministry. Schmid’s cellphone was seized in November 2019 as a part of a separate corruption investigation.

Schmid, a detailed confidant of Kurz, was a central determine in what was dubbed “Mission Ballhausplatz” by Kurz’s circle — a reference to the seat of the chancellorship, and the hassle to get Kurz into it.

Demonstrators hold up flags and banners during a protest against Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz in front of the People’s Party (OeVP) headquarters on October 07, 2021
Demonstrators outdoors the Folks’s Occasion headquarters on Thursday. It was raided by police the day gone by © Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Photos

The WKStA says it believes Schmid used his place within the finance ministry to divert federal funds to put adverts within the Österreich secure of newspapers and on-line publications managed by the media entrepreneurs Helmuth and Wolfgang Fellner. In change, they allegedly printed opinion polls, commissioned and “dressed up” by Schmid, that mirrored Kurz in a constructive gentle and helped steer his profession.

“I’ve by no means actually gone so far as we now have,” Schmid wrote in 2018 in a textual content message to Johannes Frischmann, who’s now Kurz’s press spokesperson: “Ingenious funding. And [Wolfgang] Fellner is a capitalist . . . Whoever pays [gets to] create. I like that.” 

Using taxpayers cash, estimated at €1.2m, was disguised with faux invoices for consultancy work for the ministry, the WKStA believes.

Utilizing public funds was obligatory for Kurz’s marketing campaign as a result of as overseas minister he had no entry to celebration finance and little or no affect throughout the celebration to easy his technique to the highest, the prosecutor’s warrant alleges. “Schmid commonly reported to Kurz on all developments and progress,” it provides.

“Thanks for Österreich at present,” Kurz wrote to Schmid in January 2017. “All the time at your service :-)),” Schmid replied.

The WKStA mentioned it was investigating 26 opinion polls apparently linked to Schmid and printed on Österreich platforms, which lined issues starting from the unpopularity of former Folks’s Occasion boss Reinhold Mitterlehner (earlier than Kurz took over from him) to the recognition of a Kurz coalition with the far proper.

Schmid and the Fellners have denied wrongdoing. Österreich mentioned in a press release that the WKStA’s allegations had been primarily based on “critical misunderstandings”. 

It mentioned it had been paid far much less for adverts by the ministry of finance than claimed within the WKStA warrant and disputed any deal existed with Schmid or others.

“At no time was there an settlement . . . to pay for surveys by way of commercials. Actually, all promoting funds made by the ministry of finance are disclosed by the Transparency Act,” the group added.

For Kurz, and the remainder of the Folks’s Occasion management, the allegations are an outrage that the chancellor has pledged to combat “with all my would possibly”.

The WKStA, he believes, is pursuing a nakedly political agenda to attempt to unseat him. The messages which were utilized in its warrant, he instructed state TV channel ORF, had been cherry-picked and offered with out context.

On Friday, in an obvious response, the WKStA launched 500 pages of proof, together with dozens extra textual content messages. Politicians, journalists and spin-doctors from throughout the political spectrum have been poring by way of them for additional revelations.

Austria’s parliament is because of convene on Tuesday, when a doable movement of no confidence could possibly be taken to unseat the federal government.

Kurz’s supporters have, within the meantime, rallied to him. He’s nonetheless, by far, the most well-liked selection for the chancellorship amongst Austrians. And the Folks’s Occasion stays the chief within the polls by a large margin. When Kurz’s first authorities resulted in calamity, the snap election that adopted returned him to power with an excellent bigger share of the vote.

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