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EXPLAINED: Why was Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz forced to resign?

Austria's top diplomat Alexander Schallenberg takes over as chancellor on Monday as the ruling party tries to emerge from a corruption scandal that cost the job of one of Europe's youngest leaders.

Published: 11 October 2021 11:56 CEST
Updated: 11 October 2021 13:58 CEST
Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
Austria's former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz had defended the benefit cuts. STEFANIE LOOS / AFP

Sebastian Kurz, a 35-year-old once feted as a “whizz kid”, said late Saturday he was quitting the top job after being implicated in a corruption scandal.

Schallenberg, 52, will be sworn in by President Alexander Van der Bellen at 1:00 pm (1100 GMT).

Kurz’s centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP) and their junior Green coalition partners are hoping to move on from the scandal and serve out the rest of their term until 2024.

However, the fallout from last week’s events may continue to reverberate.

On Wednesday prosecutors raided several ÖVP-linked locations, including the chancellory and party headquarters, over allegations that between 2016 and 2018 finance ministry resources were used to finance “partially manipulated opinion polls that served an exclusively party-political interest”.

Prosecutors allege that payments were made to an unnamed media company — widely understood to be the Oesterreich tabloid, which was also raided on Wednesday — in return for publishing these surveys.

The offences were allegedly committed to help Kurz, already a government minister at the beginning of the period in question, take over the leadership of the ÖVP. 

‘Kurz system’

While Kurz initially insisted there was no reason for him to resign — and continues to vehemently protest his innocence — he then reversed course, saying he was putting the country before his own interests.

But many say Kurz bowed to pressure from the Greens and from within his own party. Kurz’s critics point out he will still be head of the ÖVP and will now sit as leader of its bloc in parliament — an ideal position from which to exercise influence as a “shadow chancellor”.

The opposition parties say the “Kurz system” will carry on unhindered through the presence of ministers loyal to him as well as high-ranking employees who look set to continue in post — some of whom are also suspects in the corruption inquiry.

Until now Schallenberg had served as foreign minister under Kurz and is widely seen as being loyal.

The latest scandal to hit Kurz adds to a list of corruption allegations against the ÖVP and several of its prominent figures, including Finance Minister Gernot Bluemel.

Those allegations surfaced in the aftermath of the so-called “Ibiza-gate” affair that in 2019 brought down Kurz’s first government, a coalition between the ÖVP and the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe).

Despite that Kurz came out on top in elections in autumn 2019 and re-entered government, this time at the head of a coalition with the Greens.

Schallenberg’s replacement as Foreign Minister was announced by the ÖVP-controlled ministry on Monday as Michael Linhart, the current Austrian ambassador to France.

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AUSTRIAN CITIZENSHIP

Why is Vienna pushing hard for the easing of citizenship rules?

Authorities in the Austrian capital Vienna are campaigning hard for the federal government to change the bureaucratic process of naturalisation.

Published: 7 June 2023 15:30 CEST
Why is Vienna pushing hard for the easing of citizenship rules?

The Vienna authorities and the city’s so-called Integration Council have recently strongly criticised the existing restrictive citizenship law, arguing that it creates a “democratic deficit” by excluding over one-third of Vienna’s resident population from the right to vote. In a press statement, they have called for reforms to address this issue.

While the citizenship law is under federal jurisdiction and cannot be changed by individual provinces, regional authorities can still exert pressure for reforms. Vienna has advocated for law changes for several years, especially as the city’s immigrant population continues to grow.

Naturalisation as an integration tool

The latest proposal from the Vienna Integration Council, led by Deputy Mayor Christoph Wiederkehr of the Neos party, suggested granting automatic citizenship to children born in Austria if one parent has legally resided in the country for five years.

According to the Integration Council, Vienna has experienced a significant decline in the naturalisation rate compared to other European countries, despite the population growth resulting from immigration. The current requirements for Austrian naturalisation include ten years of legal and uninterrupted residence, as well as proof of sufficient financial means and a secure livelihood.

READ ALSO: Reader question: Does Austria allow me to have multiple citizenships?

The Integration Council called for reducing the length of required residence, lowering income thresholds, and allowing dual citizenship. They also emphasised the need for increased resources for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (MA 35) in Vienna to streamline and enhance the efficiency and transparency of the naturalisation process.

Additionally, the council highlighted the challenges the current citizenship law poses to the integration process. Gerd Valchars, a member of the Integration Council and a political scientist, said that naturalisation is vital in facilitating social integration, leading to higher incomes, lower unemployment rates, improved housing conditions, and better educational opportunities for children.

austria passport

Austria has strict rules on citizenship, but a powerful passport. (© Amanda Previdelli / The Local)

‘Democratic deficit’

It’s not the first time Vienna has mentioned an “increasing democratic deficit” in Austrian society. 

Already in its Integration Monitor 2020, the SPÖ-led administration said: “A democracy thrives on the participation of the largest possible number of people subject to the laws that are passed.

“But if people are not allowed to vote because of their citizenship or do not (any longer) make use of their right to vote (as it happens especially often with disadvantaged population groups1), this leads to the fact that their interests are no longer represented in parliament, state parliament, the municipal council or district council. This is a massive democratic deficit that has been growing in recent years due to increasing mobility and immigration.”

“The situation is exacerbated by the very restrictive naturalisation law in force in Austria, as described above. Not only does the representativeness and, thus, legitimacy of democracy suffer from this situation, but it also leads to an integration policy problem. This is because people who are not allowed to participate in decision-making may develop less interest in political processes and the development of the society in which they live”, it added.

BACKGROUND: What are Austria’s Social Democratic Party’s plans to ease citizenship rules?

The City has called for easing citizenship rules for almost 20 years, requesting that political participation rights be linked to residents after a certain stay.

In 2003, Stadt Wien introduced voting rights for third-country nationals at the district level, with prerequisites such as five years of legal residence and main residence in Vienna. However, this regulation was overturned by the Constitutional Court in 2004 because Austrian federal constitutional law only recognises a uniform right to vote at all levels of the federal state linked to Austrian citizenship.

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: Could Austria ever change the rules to allow dual citizenship?

Who is prevented from voting in Vienna and Austria?

At the beginning of 2022, 31.5 percent of the population of voting age 16 and older were not allowed to vote in elections at the federal, provincial and municipal levels, according to Stadt Wien data.

According to the latest information, 14.18 percent of Viennese citizens of voting age are citizens of other EU member states and, therefore, eligible to vote at least at the district level.

However, 17.26 percent of Viennese citizens of voting age have the citizenship of a third country and are therefore not allowed to vote at any level.

In some districts, the proportions of people without voting rights are much higher. In Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus, 42.4 percent of the population of voting age do not have the right to vote. In no other district is the proportion of Viennese who are allowed to participate in democratic processes lower. In contrast, in Hietzing, “only” 20.8 percent are excluded from democratic participation.

READ ALSO: Austrian presidential elections: Why 1.4 million people can’t vote

Young people with foreign citizenship are particularly affected by the exclusion from the right to vote: 41.4 percent of Viennese citizens between the ages of 16 and 44 do not have Austrian citizenship.

In Austria, the latest Statistik Austria data shows that 19 percent of all people residing in the country are not Austrian nationals – and, therefore, would not have the right to vote. The number has increased considerably since January 1st 2022, when 17.7 percent of the population had foreign citizenship. This considers people of all ages, and not only those of voting age (16 or above).

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