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.