Tu, felix Austria

[selenak]

Since political news on several continents tend to be a grotesque horror show these days more often than not, I thought you might appreciate a few links to the exception we’ve had since this Friday, when two major German publications, the daily Süddeutsche (from Munich, holding the liberal fort in a conservative province) and the weekly Spiegel (from Hamburg), jointly published articles and video excerpts showing one H.C. Strache, then Vice Chancellor of Austria, and his right hand man happily selling the country to the supposed niece of a Russian oligarch chum of Putin’s. (Spoiler: she wasn’t. The oligarch and Putin buddy is real, mind.) While at it, Strache also wanted her to buy Austria’s most popular newspaper, fire anyone critical to him and create a media landscape just like Victor Orban did in Hungary (i.e. all praising him, nothing „unpatriotic“ allowed except for a few surviving internet outlets (surviving so far).

Basically: it’s the kind of thing the Orange Menace and his spawn regularly get away with, even if found out, ditto for Farage and friends. Now, Strache doesn’t (or now, didn’t) just head the far-right extremist party FPÖ in Austria, he used to be the open as opposed to the disguised type of Neonazi, running around with the „Viking Youth“, singing SS songs, you name it, he did it. This is anything but unusual for the FPÖ. Who are what the AFD is to Germany, the former Front National is to France, PIS is to Poland, Orban’s party is to Hungary and UKIP to Britain and so forth. But what with Austria being Hitler’s country of birth, the conservative chancellor of Austria, Sebastian Kurz, forming a coalition with the FPÖ came across as that much worse. And the FPÖ since becoming a part oft he government did its best to live up to its reputation. Strache himself most recently went after a tv journalist, Armin Wolf, and Austrian public tv (the ORF) in a big way after Wolf had pointed out the similarities between an FPÖ poster and an antisemitic drawing in the Nazi publication Der Stürmer while they were both live on air. Unfortunately for Strache, though, he’s not the Orange Menace. 24 hours after the video broke, he resigned, his sidekick resigned, and the chancellor has decided to end the coalition with the FPÖ, announcing there will be new elections in September. (Mind you: Kurz pretending to be shocked is about as believable as Captain Renault objecting to gambling at Rick’s.) Since Nazis Rightwing Extremists getting kicked out of positions of power is a spectacle of joy to many a person I know online, here are a few links for more fun details, all in English:

The Guardian provides a short summary for British readers

The orginal detailed report by the Süddeutsche

The original detailed report by Der Spiegel

Spiegel commentary on Strache’s subsequent self justification and the reactions of other right-wing extremists

And yes, it's depressing anyway that so many voters were just fine with the racism, antisemitism and general vileness and just draw the line at corruption because been there, done that. But still. It's a much needed win.

Comments

[baranduin]

This is good.

[selenak]

It gets even better. In the last 12 hours: Kurz (the chancellor) wanted a third FPÖ secretary (of the interior, the Home Office, which of course will be charged with investigating Strache's corruption) gone immediately too, Kickl. Kickl refused to resign. The FPÖ threatened to collectivy withdraw immediately from government (as opposed to September) if Kurz dimissed him. Somehow they thought this would be a bad thing to the rest of the country, apparantly. Kurz went ahead and asked the president (since Austria, like Germany, has a head of government and a head of state as separate offices) to dismiss Kickl, the president, who isn't a conservative but actually a member of the Green party, happily did, the other three FPÖ guys resigned as announced, and were replaced by non-party-belonging experts immediately. Net result: no more Neonazis in the current Austrian government. Mind you, it doesn't make me think better of Kurz, who did the von Papen thing of thinking you could use them and govern with them in the first place, but still: win.

[jo_lasalle]

I'm honestly hesitant to enjoy this, much as that could be a fun break from the endless series of terrible people facing no consequences, because I think the real test here will be those fall elections. Which could turn out satisfying, but I can't say I'm not worried that they won't...

(I always enjoy your political write-ups and I don't mean to rain on the win. I do hope it is one. This just got me in my current argh spot.)

[selenak]

True, there is no guarantee that the fall elections will have any better results than last time, but the fact of no more Neonazis in the Austrian government until fall at least is something to be enjoyed, no?

If some of these scumbags actually go to trial, even better. Now that Kickl can't order raids on anyone inveestigating them anymore.

[ratcreature]

It really makes you wonder though how these high ranking FPÖ people just believed this kind of outrageous setup. Like, are there regularly filthy rich corrupt randos offering to buy prominent media so that this seems unremarkable to politicians hoping to profit? Are the politicians just hoping this kind of thing is true, so that they are really gullible when outrageous offers come along and don't do any diligence before buying some random Russian speaker's claim? I mean, the FPÖ has all the close contacts to Putin&Co, inviting them to their weddings and such, surely such a highly ranked guy ought to have some way to cross-check whether their supposed connections are legit? If you do conspiratorial corruption you should have a minimal level of competence.

[selenak]

You'd think so, but apparantly not. Then again, ever since finding out one of the Kray Brothers who ruled the London underworld in the 1960s and had all sorts of officials in their pocket fell for the 60s equivalent of the Nigerian prince email scheme (just without the email), I've concluded being a sucker for con jobs and being evil overlords isn't mutually exclusive.

(Which adds even more realism to Johannes Mario Simmel's Es muß nicht immer Kavia sein, where the hero cons Nazis and Allies alike throughout the 40s and 50s.)

I did love the tweet declaring that all AFD functionaries must have been very busy through the last days checking their past schedule and memories for meetings with attractive relations of Russian oligarchs....

[moon_custafer]

Then again, ever since finding out one of the Kray Brothers who ruled the London underworld in the 1960s and had all sorts of officials in their pocket fell for the 60s equivalent of the Nigerian prince email scheme (just without the email), I've concluded being a sucker for con jobs and being evil overlords isn't mutually exclusive.

I mean, I can see how being dodgy-but-powerful yourself might make it easier to fall for a seemingly obvious con, because if YOUR real, everyday life involves large sums of dirty money, celebs on speed-dial, and routinely getting people to help you do end-runs around the authorities, then someone else’s description of a complicated ploy is not automatically going to sound implausible to you.

[kore]

That is a good win!

[selenak]

It gets even better. In the last 12 hours: Kurz (the chancellor) wanted a third FPÖ secretary (of the interior, the Home Office, which of course will be charged with investigating Strache's corruption) gone immediately too, Kickl. Kickl refused to resign. The FPÖ threatened to collectivy withdraw immediately from government (as opposed to September) if Kurz dimissed him. Somehow they thought this would be a bad thing to the rest of the country, apparantly. Kurz went ahead and asked the president (since Austria, like Germany, has a head of government and a head of state as separate offices) to dismiss Kickl, the president, who isn't a conservative but actually a member of the Green party, happily did, the other three FPÖ guys resigned as announced, and were replaced by non-party-belonging experts immediately. Net result: no more Neonazis in the current Austrian government. Mind you, it doesn't make me think better of Kurz, who did the von Papen thing of thinking you could use them and govern with them in the first place, but still: win.

[kore]

WOW, yeah, T was tracking it last night and DAMN everything happened wonderfully fast. Possibly my favourite moment was the protesters singing along to "We're Going to Ibiza".

[schneefink]

And now Kickl is gone too! :D
(I wish I was more optimistic about the September elections and the long-term effects of this, but at least for right now the country passed the test, because if there hadn't been consequences from this then it would have been proof that these people could do whatever they want.)

[selenak]

Along with all the remaining FPÖ guys, for added goodness. And yes, it doesn't guarantee any better election results, but for now, I think we're allowed to take a deep breath and possibly hum "Ibiza".

[sovay]

Unfortunately for Strache, though, he’s not the Orange Menace. 24 hours after the video broke, he resigned, his sidekick resigned, and the chancellor has decided to end the coalition with the FPÖ, announcing there will be new elections in September.

How nice!

[selenak]

It gets even better. In the last 12 hours: Kurz (the chancellor) wanted a third FPÖ secretary (of the interior, the Home Office, which of course will be charged with investigating Strache's corruption) gone immediately too, Kickl. Kickl refused to resign. The FPÖ threatened to collectivy withdraw immediately from government (as opposed to September) if Kurz dimissed him. Somehow they thought this would be a bad thing to the rest of the country, apparantly. Kurz went ahead and asked the president (since Austria, like Germany, has a head of government and a head of state as separate offices) to dismiss Kickl, the president, who isn't a conservative but actually a member of the Green party, happily did, the other three FPÖ guys resigned as announced, and were replaced by non-party-belonging experts immediately. Net result: no more Neonazis in the current Austrian government. Mind you, it doesn't make me think better of Kurz, who did the von Papen thing of thinking you could use them and govern with them in the first place, but still: win.

[sovay]

Net result: no more Neonazis in the current Austrian government.

Definitely a net improvement! Thanks for the update.

[sylvaine]

Ah, I do so love the fine art of proper journalism. :D

[selenak]

Verily!