“The whole ÖVP has become toxic”
A few days until the all-important vote of no confidence in Chancellor Kurz. It doesn’t want to give way beforehand. This is how the press comments on the latest developments.
In Austria, corruption investigations against Chancellor Kurz and his closest circle triggered a government crisis. As a coalition partner, the Greens now consider the head of government to be no longer fit for office.
On Tuesday, Kurz, who denies the allegations, has to face a motion of no confidence in a special session of the National Council. His deselection is now considered to be quickly certain. In order to avoid new elections, all other parliamentary parties have started explorations for alternative government constellations. So the press comments on the showdown until Tuesday.
The Austrian daily “Der Standard” comments that the ÖVP’s oath of loyalty has consequences for the entire party:
“With the house searches only Kurz and his inner circle became intolerable. With the party’s oath of allegiance, the whole ÖVP has now become toxic. Because nobody can afford to govern with a partner whose leadership is opposed because of corruption. .)
Even if the ÖVP may expect to go a second time with Kurz in the role of victim in new elections: The conditions for the time after that are bad. Nobody believes the “new style” of governance that Kurz promised; there is nothing left of the clean image after reading the chat. The party leader is threatened with up to ten years in prison if he is proven to have died in the alleged acts. “
The “Wiener Zeitung” draws comparisons to the recent crash of the German CDU in the elections. What happens if the leading figure in a party ceases to exist?
“The exceptional political talent Kurz has – not entirely unlike Merkel – managed to turn an essential party with not particularly strong contours into the strongest in the country. But what happens when the leading figure disappears and the emptiness remains, the CDU had to experience in the recent election.
An ÖVP, which for whatever reason would have to do without Kurz, would probably also fall sharply in favor of the voters. A party whose visible foundations are not exactly strong because it has been converted into a power agency will stand there like a balloon without a cover when that person, for whom it is tailored, falls away. (…)
If bourgeois politics can and wants to learn something from developments in Germany, it is probably that the extensive renunciation of clearly defined politics will at some point reach its limits. “
The German daily “taz” writes that the detailed descriptions in chat logs delivered themselves:
“Gigantomaniacal self-image, the leader’s self-love, the cult of the minions and the criminal energy of the entire gang have reached a level that not even Kurz’s harshest critics would have assumed. The chat logs that leaked until yesterday afternoon leave you open-mouthed.
The now highly probable complete collapse of the Kurz system is due to a bizarre form of the “digitization offensive”: those involved discussed each other in provocative idiocy and euphoric pomposity in such detail via WhatsApp and SMS that they have themselves at the knife. The gigantomania may have contributed to this, because dying likes to go hand in hand with the illusion of invulnerability and thus with insufficient caution. “
The weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” looks at the role of the Greens in this government crisis – her long adherence to Sebastian Kurz also has a positive reading:
“The government crisis comes at an inopportune time for the Greens. Only this autumn, a few days before the house searches, they have made some of their big promises about climate protection: the climate ticket, for example, an annual ticket for all public transport and an eco-social tax reform, CO2 pricing included (…)
Of course, the Greens are accused of holding on to Sebastian Kurz for too long. They tolerated his tough asylum policy and, although they rejected his attacks on the judiciary, in the end they kept going on with him.
But there is another reading of the 21 months in which the Green Nuns have ruled: As a constructive party, they have tried, at least as long as possible, to work with such a completely different coalition partner. Despite all the contradictions, it was a rare example of cooperation in times of political polarization. “