Klaus Luger, the mayor of Linz, announced his resignation following a major political scandal in the capital of Upper Austria. What is happening, and how could this affect the national elections this year?

Luger is at the centre of a scandal regarding the appointment of the former head of the Brucknerhaus, a festival and congress centre in Linz. Back in July, the company dismissed its artistic director, Dietmar Kerschbaum, after a special audit showed “serious misconduct” by the executive, Austrian media reported at the time.

Among other things, Kerschbaum is said to have entered into questionable business deals that may have benefitted him and outsourced the programming to an agent who looked after potential artists for the concert hall.

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Questionable appointment 

However, question marks over Kerschbaum’s appointment in 2017 also came to light. He was said to have received an unfair advantage by being given the questions that the commission appointing the head of the organisation was to ask him beforehand.

Linz’s mayor, who is also Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Linzer Veranstaltungsgesellschaft mbH (Liva) – the company responsible for the job appointment – initially said he didn’t know anything about the questions being leaked. He even commissioned a legal opinion on the disclosure of hearing documents at the expense of public money and did not inform the experts that he himself was behind it. 

However, Luger later admitted to leaking the questions to Kerschbaum before the appointment hearing.

“Because I was of the opinion at the time that he was a very good choice for Linz from an artistic point of view – and I still believe that today,” the Linz mayor said when the scandal came to light earlier this week. He anticipated possible political reactions and wrote that he would take note of them.

The fact that Mayor Luger only admitted to leaking the questions after chats proving he did so surfaced in local media made the political storm worse. 

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On Thursday, August 22nd, he said he’d resign from his position at Liva—but not as mayor. The next day, after pressure from his party and opposition, he called a press conference to resign as mayor of Linz, one of Austria’s provincial capitals. 

“I’m annoyed about this incident myself because I didn’t meet the standards I set myself in this one case,” said Luger. He added: “I deeply regret my mistake”.

How does this affect Austria’s national elections this autumn?

Linz will elect a new mayor in the next three months. So, after the national elections that are set for the end of September.

The political scandal, the attempt to cover up, the lies, and finally, the resignation look really bad for Luger’s party, the centre-left SPÖ, as it tries to gather votes ahead of the national decision next month. 

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On Thursday, SPÖ leader, Andreas Babler, said that Luger’s actions were “inexcusable” and that such behaviour had no place in social democracy or politics. He was one of the loudest voices calling Luger to resign from his party functions and as mayor. 

For many, his decision to resign comes “too late” and only reinforces a growing distrust in politics in Austria – something that strengthens the far-right party FPÖ, which has positioned itself as “anti-establishment”. The latest polls put the FPÖ in the lead, with 26 percent of the votes, followed by the centre-right ÖVP with 24 percent. The SPÖ is third, with 22 percent.