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Austria’s Kurz loses confidence vote
ZIA WEISE
5/27/19
Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz
Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his Cabinet lost a confidence vote on Monday, ousting him after just a year and a half in office.
The opposition Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) both voted against Kurz and his minority government, the first successful confidence motion in Austria's modern history. Austria's president is now expected to appoint an interim chancellor.
The motion of no confidence came after 10 days of political turmoil. Austria's coalition government, made up of Kurz's Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the FPÖ, collapsed over the so-called "Ibiza affair" just one week before the European election.
On May 17, secretly recorded footage emerged of Heinz-Christian Strache — then vice chancellor and FPÖ leader — meeting a woman he believed to be the wealthy niece of a Russian oligarch on the island of Ibiza ahead of the Austrian general election in 2017. In the video, Strache is seen attempting to trade lucrative public contracts for campaign support from the woman.
Strache resigned, followed by his fellow FPÖ members who quit government after Kurz insisted that the FPÖ interior minister had to go in order to guarantee an unbiased investigation into the video. Kurz also called a snap general election and replaced the FPÖ ministers with technocratic caretakers.
Although Kurz himself was not implicated in the scandal, it prompted the opposition to raise questions over his judgment in allying with the far right. The chancellor also faced criticism for failing to seek a cross-party solution to the crisis.
Voters seemed to think otherwise, handing a major win to Kurz's party in Sunday's European election. According to provisional results, his ÖVP won 34.9 percent — a surge of 8 percentage points compared to the last EU election in 2014.
That, however, couldn't save the chancellor during Monday's no-confidence motion as without the FPÖ, the ÖVP had no majority in Austria's parliament.
Kurz may yet return. If the European election is any guide, the ÖVP is Austria's strongest party by a wide margin. Should Kurz continue to lead the party into the upcoming general election, he could once again become chancellor.
For now, Kurz has become the shortest-serving chancellor in the country's post-war history with just 525 days in office — a steep fall for the 32-year-old politician once hailed as the rising star of Europe's center right.
https://www.politico.eu/article/austrias-kurz-loses-confidence-vote/
ZIA WEISE
5/27/19
Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz
Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his Cabinet lost a confidence vote on Monday, ousting him after just a year and a half in office.
The opposition Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) both voted against Kurz and his minority government, the first successful confidence motion in Austria's modern history. Austria's president is now expected to appoint an interim chancellor.
The motion of no confidence came after 10 days of political turmoil. Austria's coalition government, made up of Kurz's Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the FPÖ, collapsed over the so-called "Ibiza affair" just one week before the European election.
On May 17, secretly recorded footage emerged of Heinz-Christian Strache — then vice chancellor and FPÖ leader — meeting a woman he believed to be the wealthy niece of a Russian oligarch on the island of Ibiza ahead of the Austrian general election in 2017. In the video, Strache is seen attempting to trade lucrative public contracts for campaign support from the woman.
Strache resigned, followed by his fellow FPÖ members who quit government after Kurz insisted that the FPÖ interior minister had to go in order to guarantee an unbiased investigation into the video. Kurz also called a snap general election and replaced the FPÖ ministers with technocratic caretakers.
Although Kurz himself was not implicated in the scandal, it prompted the opposition to raise questions over his judgment in allying with the far right. The chancellor also faced criticism for failing to seek a cross-party solution to the crisis.
Voters seemed to think otherwise, handing a major win to Kurz's party in Sunday's European election. According to provisional results, his ÖVP won 34.9 percent — a surge of 8 percentage points compared to the last EU election in 2014.
That, however, couldn't save the chancellor during Monday's no-confidence motion as without the FPÖ, the ÖVP had no majority in Austria's parliament.
Kurz may yet return. If the European election is any guide, the ÖVP is Austria's strongest party by a wide margin. Should Kurz continue to lead the party into the upcoming general election, he could once again become chancellor.
For now, Kurz has become the shortest-serving chancellor in the country's post-war history with just 525 days in office — a steep fall for the 32-year-old politician once hailed as the rising star of Europe's center right.
https://www.politico.eu/article/austrias-kurz-loses-confidence-vote/
