Austria: Chancellor Nehammer dares under the heavy legacy of the Kurz era
Austria’s Chancellor Nehammer is trying to make a fresh start with his ÖVP. But a new name for the party and a pretty logo shouldn’t be enough.
May 14 is supposed to be his big day. In Graz, Karl Nehammer is finally officially elected party leader at the federal party conference of the ÖVP. This should give the Austrian Federal Chancellor backing. He can also make good use of it, after all his party has fallen well behind the Social Democrats in terms of voter favor. Since taking over the chancellorship, Nehammer has been leading his party through a permanent state of emergency: Not only are the corruption affairs of his predecessor Sebastian Kurz and his entourage still having an effect – on Tuesday, two top judicial officials close to the ÖVP answered questions from the parliamentary committee of inquiry into ÖVP corruption stand. Nehammer is also already making negative headlines.
Another corruption scandal in Austria
This is, for example, the affair surrounding the chancellor’s bodyguards, who are said to have caused an accident while drunk after a “drink” in Nehammer’s private apartment. The affair filled the Austrian tabloids for days, and the chancellor himself went to the press conference to deny the allegations.
And hardly has the media echo about Nehammer’s unauthorized trip to Moscow (arranged by ex-pictureboss Kai Diekmann, who advises Nehammer) and the conversation there with Vladimir Putin, which was as short as it was ineffective, ebbed somewhat, a corruption scandal shook the local ÖVP of Governor Markus Wallner in the state of Vorarlberg. It is about possibly up to one and a half million, which are said to have flowed into the party coffers through insertions in magazines of the ÖVP Economic Association. The governor himself is said to have “encouraged” entrepreneurs to pay for advertisements, in return the “public sector” can help with problems.
Speculations about a return from Sebastian Kurz
In Graz, the waves in the ÖVP should now also be smoothed out. It is all the more surprising that Sebastian Kurz, of all people, announced himself as a speaker – a step that fueled speculation in the Viennese political bubble about a return of the former conservative messiah, but which “100 percent” rules out. Especially for Nehammer’s big performance, the ÖVP missed – again – a new name: The “New People’s Party”, as Kurz had christened his conservative “movement”, became “The People’s Party”.
The tightrope walk between the legacy of the “System Kurz” and a new beginning that Nehammer was striving for is also exemplified by the party logo: Kurz’s turquoise fades into the background, but it doesn’t disappear completely. It’s the same with the staff that the failed Kurz installed.
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The “turquoise structures” are a challenge within the party for Nehammer and prevent him from developing his own profile. The newspaper courier and tabloid media speculated on Monday that the chancellor not only wants to restructure the party, but also the ÖVP ministerial team.