Yearbook 2019
Austria. The so-called Ibiza scandal, which burst in
mid-May, led to the resignation and re-election in
September. But some major changes did not bring about this
scandal, which the Social Democrats (SPÖ) gladly described
as "the biggest scandal in Austria after the world war".
The scandal consisted in a revelation that Austria's
vice-chancellor and party leader of the right-wing populist
Freedom Party (FPÖ), Heinz-Christian Strache, had been
deceived just before the 2017 election by a woman who, at a
meeting in Ibiza, had pretended to be a Russian billionaire.
The woman had said she wanted to invest several hundred
million euros in Austria. Among other things, she would take
control of Austria's largest newspaper, Kronen Zeitung, and
thus help FPÖ in the electoral movement. However, the
meeting was sneakily filmed, and the Ibiza scandal became a
fact, as did a Russian connection to right-wing parties.
According to
CountryAAH, Strache resigned immediately, a day later, also Interior
Minister Herbert Kickl. After that, all the ministers from
the right-wing populist party FPÖ were forced out of the
government, and President Alexander Van der Bellen
recommended new elections in September. When the government
and Chancellor Sebastian Kurz lost a vote of no confidence
on May 27, Kurz and the government resigned, and a new
election was announced. The party politically independent
Brigitte Bierlein was appointed temporary Chancellor. The
69-year-old lawyer thus became the country's first female
Chancellor - albeit temporarily.
Despite the Ibiza scandal, Chancellor Kurz did well in
the EU elections on 26 May. His Conservative People's Party
(ÖVP) was the largest with 34.6% of the vote, giving 7
seats. There was also an 8 percentage point increase for the
party since the 2014 European elections. The Social
Democratic SPÖ gained 23.9% (5 seats) and FPÖ ended at 17.2%
(3 seats). The green parties The green/green option got
14.1% (2 seats) and liberal NEOS (New Austria) got 8.4% (1
seats).
At the recent September 29 election, former Chancellor
Sebastian Kurz strengthened his positions. His ÖVP received
38.4% of the vote, which was an increase of almost 7
percentage points; the right-wing nationalist FPÖ ended up
at 17.3% (a decrease of almost 9 percentage points), while
the Social Democratic SPÖ only gained 21.5%, a decrease of
5.3 percentage points, which is the party's worst result
ever. The biggest winner was the Greens, who went from 3.8%
in the 2017 election to 12.4% (an increase of 8.6 percentage
points).
After the election, Sebastian Kurz announced that he
would hold government talks with all parties. FPÖ's
newly-appointed leader Norbert Hofer announced at the same
time that he was preparing to sit in opposition. However,
this was not the case. In mid-December, Kurz and ÖVP reached
an agreement with the right-wing populist and xenophobic FPÖ
to form a coalition government. This meant that the country
was back on square one, that the Ibiza scandal was over and
that the government basically looked the same at the end of
the year as at the beginning - except for the resigned FPÖ
leader and Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, who are
now completely forced to leave politics.
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