In Austria, the Federal Chancellor’s Office decided on a list of experts who will become interim ministers for the duration of the transitional government in the country. This is reported by the Austrian news agency APA.

According to him, the place of the head of the Austrian Ministry of Internal Affairs will be taken by the former chairman of the Supreme Court of Austria, Eckart Ratz, the officer of defense Johann Luif will become the minister of defense. In addition, the Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology will be headed by the head of the Austro Control air traffic control, Valerie Hackl, the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Protection, the former head of the department, Walter Peltner.

On the eve of the Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said that all the heads of ministries from the Austrian Freedom Party will resign.

“Ministers from the Austrian Freedom Party and the Secretary of State are asking for release from office. The Foreign Minister announced her readiness to continue work during the transition period, ”the president of the republic said.

Bellen entrusted Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurtz to look for candidates for vacant ministerial posts.

The need for reshuffling the Austrian leadership said after the scandal erupted around the country Heinz-Christian Strache, who served as vice-chancellor of Austria and chairman of the Austrian Freedom Party (part of the government coalition with the Austrian People's Party, headed by Kurz).

  • Heinz-Christian Strache, who served as vice-chancellor of Austria and chairman of the Austrian Freedom Party
  • Reuters
  • © Leonhard Foeger

In the German editions of Spiegel and Sueddeutsche Zeitung on May 17, information appeared that Strache allegedly held talks in 2017 with a certain woman who asked to purchase the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung to receive "help" in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The media also published the alleged video of this meeting.

After the publication of this message, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office of Austria began checking information about a possible illegal source of funding for the MTA. Following the prosecutor's request to explain secret financial transactions followed from the Accounts Chamber of the Republic. And last week, the President of Austria called for early elections to the Austrian parliament in early September. This is stated in a statement on his website.

Discredit coalition

As Strache himself noted, the scandal was “directed,” and its organizers were faced with the task of leading the Austrian government to resign. This, he said, he foresaw, and therefore decided to leave his post to avoid the collapse of the coalition.

"My person should not become a pretext for undermining the work of the government, because this was the goal of this dirty campaign," the politician said.

He also added that the outbreak of scandal is a “trap” to destroy the government of the country. According to him, the publication of the video should be regarded as an "attempt at political murder."

“Certain sections of the video were cut out of the general context and aimed against us,” the vice-chancellor noted.

  • Advertising posters of the Austrian Freedom Party
  • Reuters
  • © Leonhard Foeger

Recall, the Austrian Freedom Party is ultra-right and stands for the national interests of the Austrians, supporting the idea of ​​tightening control over immigration.

Vladimir Schweitzer, head of the social and political studies department of the Institute of Europe, RAS, believes that Vienna’s “violent reaction” to the scandal around the video may be due to the Austrian leadership’s desire to remove the Austrian Freedom Party from its path ahead of the European Parliament elections.

“All this scandal, if it were not for the upcoming elections to the European Parliament, would not have any significance, there are plenty of such sensations in Europe,” noted Schweitzer.

However, in his opinion, the scandalous publications about Strakh are unlikely to somehow influence the outcome of the European elections. On the contrary, the Austrians can consider the vice-chancellor injured and vote for the APS, the expert said.

The scandalous publications about the Austrian vice-chancellor were used by opponents of the APS to discredit members of the ruling coalition, because in recent years the party has significantly strengthened its position in the republic, says Konstantin Voronov.

“Mass resignations can be attributed to the fact that the Austrian Freedom Party is pursuing an euro-nationalistic course and requires control of migration flows. Austria had a similar situation when a big scandal broke out because of the leader of the nationalists, as a result of which the country was subjected to isolation, and in the European Union it was put pressure on it, ”the expert noted.

According to analysts, the fact that the day of publication of scandalous materials about the Vice-Chancellor of Austria coincided with the return of the Austrian President to the republic after a meeting with Vladimir Putin can not be called accidental.

Recall that in mid-May, Bellen said after talks with the Russian president that anti-Russian sanctions harm the economies of the EU and other countries involved in sanctions policies against Moscow.

“As for the sanctions, you know as well as I do that there are certain political prerequisites here, the situation with the Crimea and so on ... I agree that they cause harm to everyone,” the Austrian President noted.

  • Austrian President Van der Bellen
  • Reuters
  • © Lisi Niesner

He also added that Vienna faced great difficulties in the trade sphere due to sanctions restrictions on Moscow.

“The publication of the scandalous video on Bellen’s return to the republic is the move of Washington, which does not like the position of Austria. It is not anti-American, but very skeptical and critical of Trump and his administration, and most importantly, of US anti-European actions, ”said Vladimir Schweitzer.

In the opinion of Konstantin Voronov, the scandal around the video recording of Strache can be considered man-made.

“It was well calculated and planned by the“ directors ”. Opponents APS tried podgadat and use the hype to discredit the Austrian Freedom Party. Two years kept the photos so that they appeared in the media just now - before the upcoming elections to the European Parliament, ”said Voronov.