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‘Challenging task’: foreign minister to become Austrian leader after graft scandal

Austria's top diplomat Alexander Schallenberg on Sunday said an "enormously challenging task" awaited him after embattled Chancellor Sebastian Kurz named him as his successor in a spectacular leadership change in the EU member.

Austria's Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (C) arrives to meet Austria's President at Ballhausplatz in Vienna, on October 10, 2021. 
Austria's Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (C) arrives to meet Austria's President at Ballhausplatz in Vienna, on October 10, 2021. Photo: ALEX HALADA / AFP

Kurz – at age 35 one of Europe’s youngest leaders and long celebrated as a “whizz kid” — announced late Saturday that he was stepping down as chancellor, bowing to pressure to resign after he was implicated in a corruption scandal.

Saying he wanted to “make space to prevent chaos,” the conservative — who has headed two governments over the last four years — has suggested foreign minister Schallenberg to take over the chancellery.

‘New chapter’

The 52-year-old diplomat met President Alexander Van der Bellen on Sunday following a talk with Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler of the Greens.

In brief comments before meeting the president, Schallenberg spoke of an “enormously challenging task and time, not easy for any of us”.

“But I think we are showing an incredible degree of responsibility for this country,” he told reporters.

Kogler, who in turn was seeing Van der Bellen, told reporters he had a “good, trustful” meeting with Schallenberg earlier in the day.

“Above all, I am pleased that there is the possibility of opening a new chapter in the government coalition work,” the 59-year-old Greens veteran said.

Kogler had already indicated late Saturday that his party would support Schallenberg to keep the conservative-Greens coalition in government.

Pressure on Kurz to resign, including from the Greens, started after prosecutors on Wednesday raided several locations linked to his People’s Party (OeVP).

They announced that Kurz and nine other individuals were under investigation over claims that government money was used between 2016 and 2018 in a corrupt deal to ensure positive media coverage.

Kurz has denied any wrongdoing, reiterating on Saturday that allegations against him were “false” and that he would seek to clear up the matter while he continues as party leader and as a lawmaker in parliament.

‘Place holder’

Analyst Thomas Hofer said Kurz would, for now, continue to be “the most influential person in the People’s Party on the national stage”.

“In Kurz’ view, Schallenberg is a place holder… Kurz made his move in such a way that he still is in control of the party and the government team on his side,” Hofer told AFP.

The opposition has blasted the continued conservative-Greens coalition given the graft investigation, with Social Democrats (SPOe) leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner saying even on the back benches Kurz would remain a “shadow chancellor”.
The OeVP-Greens coalition — a first at a national level — entered office in January 2020 and has already been put under strain several times by the fallout from other corruption scandals and differences over questions such as refugee policy.
In the latest scandal, prosecutors’ core allegation is that between 2016 and 2018 finance ministry resources were used to finance “partially
manipulated opinion polls that served an exclusively party-political interest”.
This correlates to the time period in which Kurz, already a government minister, took over the leadership of the OeVP and later that of the Alpine nation at the helm of a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe).
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.
In 2019, Kurz’s first coalition with the FPOe collapsed after his ally became engulfed in a corruption scandal dubbed “Ibizagate”.
But fresh elections once again saw Kurz’s OeVP come out on top, leading him to form a coalition with the Greens from January 2020.

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POLITICS

Austrias far right demands an EU ‘remigration’ commissioner

Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) on Tuesday called for the government to name an EU "remigration" commissioner after winning the EU elections in the Alpine nation.

Austrias far right demands an EU 'remigration' commissioner

The FPOe espouses the far-right concept of remigration that calls for expelling people of non-European ethnic backgrounds who they say have failed to integrate.

While it is up to the conservative government to nominate any commissioner, the FPOe said its first nationwide win at the ballot box gave it the right to name someone to the role and dictate their portfolio.

In the EU elections, the FPOe took 25.4 percent of the votes, just ahead of the ruling conservative People’s Party (OeVP) on 24.5 percent.

“What I have noticed in the last few weeks during the election campaign is that there is above all a need for sensible migration policy, that there is a need for remigration,” FPOe secretary general Christian Hafenecker told a press conference.

“We need a remigration commissioner,” he added, putting forward an FPOe official to fill the role.

It is not the first time the FPOe has espoused the concept

In 2023, party leader Herbert Kickl said that those who “refuse to integrate” should lose their citizenship and be expelled.

The notion of remigration is associated with white nationalists who champion the great replacement conspiracy theory.

The theory alleges a plot to replace Europe’s so-called native white population with non-white migrants.

The United Nations rights chief warned in March that the conspiracy theories spread are “delusional” and racist and are directly spurring violence.

The FPOe is expected to top the vote in September’s national elections, but will probably need to find willing coalition partners to govern.

The party — founded in the 1950s by former Nazis — has been part of a ruling coalition several times but has never governed the country of nine million.

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: What does Austria’s far-right win in the EU elections mean for foreigners?

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