Corrupt Chancellors and False Answers
Sebastian Kurz was once one of the most impressive political figures in history, but after involving himself in corruption scandals and muddying his party’s politics, the former chancellor could serve three years in jail.
At age twenty-seven, Kurz was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Integration in Austria, making him the youngest foreign minister in all of Europe at the time. Four years later, in 2017, he was selected as the leader of the Österreichische Volkspartei (Austrian People’s Party), Austria’s center-right political party. As a brief background, the ÖVP is one of three prominent political parties in Austria. OVP traditionally advocates for conservative policies, baselessly condemning immigration from the Middle East and opposing the socialist welfare state. As leader of the ÖVP, Kurz allied his center-right party with the far-right Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (Freedom Party of Austria), a party with close ties to Russian President Valdimir Putin that poses a threat to the civil liberties of Austrian citizens. This is where it all went wrong for Kurz.
In Dec. 2017, with more than half of the Austrian public supporting his new coalition government, Kurz became the youngest Chancellor in Austrian history and the youngest head of government in the world. This astonishing feat, accomplished at age thirty-one, should have put Kurz on track for a long and successful political career. In May 2019, the first of many corruption scandals within his government surfaced in the media. Kurz’s Vice-Chancellor, Heinz-Christian Strache, who was also the leader of the FPÖ, appeared in a video with the niece of a prominent Russian oligarch. Known as the “Ibiza Affair” among Austrians, the footage shows Strache bribing the woman with lucrative oil deals in exchange for favorable media coverage of his coalition government and falsified polling data. Strache was expelled from his party, and Kurz was forced to step down as Austria’s left-wing party. The Sozialdemokratische Partei Osterreichs (Social Democratic Party of Austria) issued a vote of no-confidence against Kurz and his coalition cabinet. But Kurz’s story isn’t over yet.
Just a few months later, in Sept. 2019, the ÖVP surprisingly won the majority of seats in parliament. Kurz turned to the resurgent Green Party, which had also won several parliamentary seats, to form a new coalition government. In Jan. 2020, Kurz was once again appointed as the Chancellor of Austria. There’s an old saying that Kurz should be familiar with: “You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.” After helping Austria navigate through the thick of the pandemic, Kurz was again found guilty of corruption. In Oct. of 2021, the ÖVP headquarters were raided by Austria’s anti-corruption enforcement agency, and they discovered documents showing that Kurz bribed new outlets, diverted taxpayer money, and manipulated polling data as chancellor. He was forced to step down again.
Although he remained the leader of the ÖVP for several months afterward, leading many to call him the “Shadow Chancellor,” Kurz will never be able to assume such a position of political importance again. His career was effectively over. Just a few weeks ago, he was accused of giving false evidence to parliament during a corruption probe. He has been indicted for corruption and perjury and will go on trial in October of this year, facing serious jail time if found guilty.