Austrian Chancellor Kurz Ousted in No-Confidence Vote After Video Scandal

The left fights back as politics in Europe get uglier

By Ed Adamczyk

Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, seen here in the White House on February 20, was driven from office on Monday after a no-confidence vote by Austria's parliament. File photo by Chris Kleponis/UPI | License Photo

May 27 (UPI) -- Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was ousted Monday by a no-confidence vote amid a corruption scandal engulfing a coalition partner.

In parliamentary debate, delegates of the far-right Freedom Party, a coalition partner of Kurz' Austrian People's Party, were critical of Kurz and unwilling to gamble their party's future on Kurz in the wake of a scandal.

Kurz, 32, became chancellor in December 2017. His party had received 31 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections and a coalition was formed.

German publications circulated a video a week ago in which vice chancellor and Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache, and party parliamentary leader Johann Gudenus, talked with an unidentified woman at a luxury resort on the Spanish island of Ibiza. She purported to be the niece of a Russian oligarch, seeking to invest in Austria, and during their six-hour meeting Strache told her that he could help her gain access to artificially-inflated state contracts.

The video included footage of Strache drinking heavily. He called the sting operation "a honey trap stage-managed by intelligence agencies," mentioning Jan Bohmermann, an Israeli with links to Austria's center-left Social Democratic Party. Strache resigned from the vice chancellorship last week. To tamp down the effects of the scandal, Kurz called for snap elections in Austria in September.

Kurz' dismissal came Monday, after the Freedom Party ignored its coalition with Kurz' leading party and voted with center and left parties in the no-confidence vote. Before the parliamentary action, Kurz's party won a decisive victory in the weekend's European Parliament elections.

It is the first time since the reconstituted Austrian government was formed after World War II that its leader was driven from office. A caretaker government will be formed to lead the country until the September elections.

Driven from office for not tolerating corruption? I hope he runs as party leader in the September elections and gets a majority. 

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Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz and his girlfriend Susanne Thier arrive at a polling station in Vienna on Sunday to cast their votes in the Austrian federal elections. Kurz, 31, will become the nation's next chancellor, according to final provisional results. Photo by Christian Bruna/EPA

UPI -- Sebastian Kurz will become Austria's next chancellor and Europe's youngest leader at 31, according to provision final results Sunday.

Kurz's People's Party captured 31.4 percent but because it's not a majority the party will need to form a parliament coalition, likely with the Freedom Party with 27.4 percent, according to the poll results. The 800,000 absentee ballots and ones by voters outside of their home districts need to be counted Thursday.

About 79.3 percent of the 6.4 million voters turned out for the election, up from the 74.9 percent four years ago.

In May, Kurz pulled his party out of the ruling coalition with the Social Democratic Party, which was second in voting Sunday with 26.8 percent. The current chancellor, Christian Kern, was elected 18 months ago as leader of the Social Democratic Party.

"This is a clear mandate for change," Kurz told cheering supporters in Vienna. "We've got a lot of work to do. We need to create a new political style and a new political culture."

The Freedom Party was part of a coalition between 2003 and 2005, the last time a far-right party helped run the government.

The Green Party had only 3.3 percent, which was below the 4 percent cutoff to win a seat in The 183-member National Council, which is determined proportionally based on the votes. The Pilz party, which was started by former Green politician Peter Pilz, and the Neos, a liberal party, surpassed the threshold.

"The result is a catastrophe. It is a defeat for the real questions of the future, the existential questions," Helga Krismer, spokeswoman for the Green Party in Lower Austria, said to The Local in Austria.

The People's Party and the Freedom Party, which is led by Heinz Christian-Strache, have a hard stance on refugees and immigration.

Kurz, Austria's foreign minister, in 2015 opposed opening European Union borders to 1 million mostly Muslim asylum seekers and migrants. That year, Austria took in around 90,000 asylum seekers, mainly Syrian Muslims.

The Freedom Party was originally founded by a former Nazi, Anton Reinthaller, in 1956.

Gernot Bluemel, who is a friend of Kurz and a party official in Vienna, said their party will keep any coalition partner in check.

"The crucial point is we are pro-European," Bluemel said to NPR. "So, we would never accept an anti-European course in the government coalition. We would never accept an anti-Semitic course in government. Never, ever, ever."

Kurz grew up and still lives in the working-class Vienna neighborhood of Meidling. His mother was a teacher and his father was a manager.

"He was raised with the idea that if you work hard, if you play by the rules, then you can achieve your goals. You can realize your dream," Bluemel said. "In a country where the level of taxes is being raised higher and higher, this dream is becoming more and more unrealistic."

Austria is scheduled to take over the European Union presidency next year.

In May, Emmanuel Macron, at 39, was elected the youngest president in France.