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. 

Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy Ousted in No-Confidence Vote

Corruption is Everywhere - And it just cost Spain its Prime Minister

By Sara Shayanian 

Ousted Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy leaves Friday after he lost a no-confidence motion at the Lower House in the Spanish Parliament in Madrid. Photo by Javier Lizon/EPA-EFE

UPI -- Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was ousted from office Friday after losing a vote of no confidence in parliament.

Rajoy will be replaced with Pedro Sanchez, the leader of Spain's opposition Socialist PSOE party, which motioned to remove Rajoy from office.

Sanchez's motion won the support of 180 lawmakers - four more than the 176 needed in the 350-seat parliament. One lawmaker abstained and 169 others opposed.

This vote of no confidence marks the first time in Spanish democratic history that a head of government has been removed.

"It has been an honor to be the prime minister of Spain," Rajoy said before the vote. "It has been an honor to leave a better Spain than the one I found. I hope that my successor will be able to say the same when his time comes."

Rajoy, 63, was removed following years of corruption allegations against his Popular Party that culminated last week with a court convicting former aides of running slush funds to help finance Popular Party election campaigns.

Before the vote, Popular Party spokesman Rafael Hernando asked Sanchez to withdraw the vote, adding he was proud of Rajoy.

"He is an honest man who has worked tirelessly to rebuild a country that the PSOE left devastated," Hernando said.

Margarita Robles, a spokeswoman for the Socialist PSOE Party, said Spain "does not deserve a prime minister who's not here and who lies in the courts of justice to cover corruption."

Sánchez to Spanish PM Rajoy: ‘Quit and This Will Be All Over’

Socialist leader says ‘corrupt’ conservatives

aren’t fit to govern

Corruption is Everywhere - Obviously in Spain's government

By DIEGO TORRES

MADRID — Spanish Socialist Pedro Sánchez demanded Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s resignation Thursday as a condition for stopping a no-confidence vote whose success now hangs on five Basque lawmakers.

“Quit, señor Rajoy, and it will be all over,” the leader of the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) said at the start of a two-day parliamentary session that, if he succeeds, would install Sánchez as prime minister and make Rajoy the first Spanish leader to be ousted via a motion of no confidence.

Lawmakers will vote on the motion on Friday, presuming that Rajoy does not follow Sánchez’s advice and resign beforehand — something he has adamantly refused to do so far.

Five lawmakers from the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) were expected to announce later on Thursday whether they would back the PSOE leader or not.

The Socialists launched the initiative to oust Rajoy following a court ruling earlier this month in which 29 people, including former senior officials from the prime minister’s conservative Popular Party (PP), were sentenced to a total of 351 years in prison for corruption.

Rajoy warned lawmakers in Congress: “You need to be aware of what you’re going to do.”

Sánchez presented the motion of censure, which includes his own candidacy for the post of prime minister, in Congress by accusing the conservative leader of asking Spaniards to accept corruption “as a chronic illness that you want to heal by looking to the other side.” He defended the “unquestionable moral strength” of his own initiative.

Rajoy counterattacked by listing the many graft cases involving Sánchez’s PSOE over the years. “Are you [Mother] Teresa of Calcutta?” the conservative leader asked at one point. “There is corruption everywhere, as you well know because you’re near it.”

Rajoy also hit back by arguing that the only reason behind Sánchez’s bid for power is “his little confidence in reaching the premiership the way everyone else does — that is, by winning at the ballot box.”

The Socialists came second behind the PP in the 2016 general election, though both now face a serious challenge from the fast-growing centrist party Ciudadanos, which wants new elections but has so far declined to back the PSOE’s no-confidence vote.

Sánchez said he would lead a “pro-European” Cabinet guaranteeing “macroeconomic and budget stability.” He promised to respect the 2018 budget approved by the Popular Party with support from Ciudadanos and the Basque nationalists. This was a gesture apparently aimed at securing the support of the PNV, who had managed to secure investments for the Basque region in return for their support for Rajoy’s budget bill.

The Socialist leader also needs the support of Catalan pro-independence parties PDeCAT and the Catalan Republican Left for his bid to oust Rajoy. The latter has all but guaranteed its support to Sánchez and the former is expected to follow the lead of the Basques, and should announce its position later on Thursday.

Although he has firmly supported the anti-independence stance of Rajoy’s government, Sánchez made a nod to the secessionists by promising to promote “dialogue” between Madrid and the separatist regional government in Barcelona while respecting Spain’s unionist constitution.

Rajoy leapt on such apparent contradictions in Sánchez’s remarks to Congress, reminding him that not long ago he accused the new Catalan regional president, Quim Torra, of “xenophobia.”

“We don’t know how you’ve convinced your partners to vote for you. We do know that it won’t be good for Spain,” said Rajoy.

However, in what looked like an admission that defeat was possible, Rajoy warned lawmakers in Congress: “You need to be aware of what you’re going to do.”

At the end of his speech, Sánchez told Rajoy that he still respects him, adding: “I wish you the best.”