Gone, but for how long? Kurz stands down as Austrian leader but some suspect he will be back

The immediate political future for Austria remains unclear despite the weekend’s dramatic events, reports Stephanie Liechtenstein in Vienna

Sebastian Kurz, who stood down as Austrian chancellor on Saturday (REUTERS)

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s decision to stand down after being placed under investigation on suspicion of corruption, bribery and breach of trust has ended a nerve-wracking political power game that lasted for four days but felt like an eternity.

“What is required now is stability. To resolve the impasse, I want to step aside to prevent chaos,” Kurz said as he announced his resignation. “This step is not easy for me. But this is not about me, it is about Austria.”

Protesters, who followed his statement on Ballhausplatz, the square where the Chancellery is located in Vienna, reportedly popped champagne corks and celebrated.

Alexander Schallenberg, the current foreign minister and a close confidant of Kurz, will take over as chancellor.

But Kurz, 35, will remain leader of his conservative People’s Party and he will continue to sit in the Austrian parliament. In this function, he will continue to be able to exert a lot of influence, Kathrin Stainer-Haemmerle, a political scientist in Austria, told The Independent.

“It is also important to understand that Schallenberg does not have a broad power base in the People’s Party, which means that he will not become a political danger to Kurz.”

Pamela Rendi-Wagner, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, took a similar line when she warned that Kurz would remain “shadow chancellor” and continue to “pull the strings in the background”.

Werner Kogler, the leader of the Green party that has been in a coalition with Kurz’s People’s Party since the beginning of the year, welcomed Kurz’s decision to step down. “We will be able to continue our work in government,” he said, citing the urgent need to pass a budget as well as legislation on an ecological tax reform.

Pressure on Kurz to resign rose by the hour after prosecutors raided the offices of his People’s Party as well as the Chancellery on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the leader of the Green Party was upping the stakes when he questioned Kurz’s ability to stay on as chancellor. “The chancellor’s ability to act is called into question in this context,” Kogler insisted.

All three opposition parties unanimously demanded Kurz’s resignation.

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the offices of his party on Thursday evening. The atmosphere was heated as protesters chanted “Basti get out”, using a nickname for Sebastian Kurz.

By Friday evening rumours emerged that a no-confidence motion, planned to be tabled by the opposition at a special session of parliament on 12 October, would very likely be supported by the Greens. This would have ousted Kurz from government.

It also became apparent that in the event of a successful no-confidence vote, the opposition had made plans to form a broad coalition with the Greens in parliament that many observers believed to be unthinkable. It would have united the Social Democrats, liberal Neos and Greens with the far-right Freedom Party – a party that is known for its refusal to support most anti-Covid measures, its anti-vaccination rhetoric and divisive stance on migration.

Few observers would have thought that the opposition was ready to go this far, least of them the People’s Party, which initially vehemently insisted that it would only continue in government with Kurz as chancellor.

But opposition parties were apparently united in their desire to oust Kurz and to avoid another election, which would have been the third in just four years.

Many still remember the dramatic ousting of Kurz’s previous government with the far-right Freedom Party only two years ago by the so-called Ibiza affair. At the time, Kurz was not directly implicated and he managed to win the election that followed with an even larger share of the vote.

But whether and how quickly Kurz will be able to stage a comeback this time is an open question. Kurz has not been charged with any wrongdoing. It could take months or even years for prosecutors to prove who exactly was implicated in the corruption probe and to what degree.

An influential Austrian tabloid daily Kronen Zeitung reported on Sunday that Kurz planned to leave the top job only for a limited time. “This tactical manoeuvre is reminiscent of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who gave way to Dmitry Medvedev only to take over again,” it said in an analysis, adding that Kurz planned to leave the top job only for a limited time.

Putin, who had been president from 2000, was prime minister under Medvedev in 2008-2012 and then returned to the presidency.

Besides Kurz, investigators are looking at nine other individuals and two organisations. Kurz and others have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The People’s Party announced on Saturday evening that Kurz will give up his parliamentary immunity to allow authorities to continue their investigation.

“All accusations against me are wrong”, Kurz told reporters on Saturday evening at the Chancellery.

But prosecutors suspect that Kurz may have been implicated in a plot, starting in 2016 when he was foreign minister, to embezzle taxpayers’ money amounting to almost two million Euros from the Finance Ministry to help bring him to power.

They suspect that the money was used to pay for lucrative government advertisements in an Austrian tabloid newspaper in exchange for coverage favourable to Kurz.

According to court filings, prosecutors suspect that the funds were also used to pay for manipulated polling data that was subsequently published in the same tabloid.

The tabloid newspaper issued a statement on Wednesday in which it denied the allegations.

To support their claims, prosecutors examined a vast number of text messages discovered on the phone of Thomas Schmid, a Kurz confidant who at the time served as secretary general in the Finance Ministry.

In one exchange, Schmid, referring to the alleged deal with the newspaper, texted a colleague: “I’ve never gone this far before. What a great investment. The ones who pay have the say. I love it.”

A number of text messages by Kurz himself also tarnish his “wunderkind” image that has been cultivated for years. In one exchange, for example, he called the former leader of his party an “ass”. Kurz said that he regretted some of the messages and that he wrote them “in the heat of the moment”.

Kurz, who prefers to just go by Sebastian and is known for his sleek style, took over the leadership of the People’s Party in May 2017. He has led them to victory twice, and at the age of 31 became one of the world’s youngest heads of government.