“Austers are consonant with his ideas”: Kurtz’s party leads in early parliamentary elections

The party of former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurtz leads the early elections to the country's National Council. Such data follows from preliminary summaries of election results.

According to the ORF television channel, the Conservative Austrian People's Party, led by Kurtz, won 37.2% of the vote in the struggle for seats in the lower house of parliament. Channel OE24.TV publishes similar data and estimates the support of the former chancellor at 37%.

According to the exit polls of ORF, the second place with 22% of the votes is held by the Social Democratic Party of Austria. The “top three” leaders also included the Austrian Freedom Party with a result of 16% of the vote.

Kurtz has already acknowledged the victory of his party and announced his intention to begin negotiations on the formation of a future government.

“We are extremely grateful, this is an incredible result, we are overly happy and will do everything to respect the trust of voters,” said Kurtz after publishing the first preliminary results. His words are quoted by TASS.

Recall that the 33-year-old Sebastian Kurtz served as Chancellor of Austria from December 2017 to May 2019. Kurtz’s government was relieved of his duties following a vote of no confidence in the parliament. The reason for this was the scandal involving Vice-Chancellor of Austria Heinz-Christian Strache.

After that, a transitional government was appointed, led by Brigitte Birline, the first female chancellor in Austrian history. It is already known that in accordance with the Austrian constitution, its cabinet will resign after an early election.

According to TASS, citing an official representative of the Austrian government, the Cabinet will pass a resolution on the resignation on Tuesday. Subsequently, the president will entrust the formation of a new government to the party that won the election. It is noted that this process can last until Catholic Christmas.

Senior researcher at the Center for European Studies of IMEMO RAS Vladimir Olenchenko is of the opinion that the preliminary results of the elections confirm the conformity of Kurtz’s policy to the interests of the Austrians.

“He proved and proved himself not only a person who can generate attractive campaign promises, but also a person who can fulfill them,” the expert said in an interview with RT.

Olenchenko believes that the scandal that destroyed the coalition was an artificial attempt to denigrate the chancellor. The expert admits that this idea worked, but was short-lived.

Olenchenko suggested that in the event of the final victory of Kurtz, Austrian politics would be characterized by independent judgments and activities.

“This provides the conditions for normal relations in Europe, which also means relations with Russia,” the expert concluded.

"Operation" against the vice chancellor

Former Vice-Chancellor Strache, leader of the Austrian Freedom Party, became a defendant in the scandal that began back in 2017. The week before the European Parliament elections in 2019, several major German media outlets published material exposing Strache. It stated that he was discussing the prospect of buying media assets to influence the 2017 parliamentary elections. Strache himself called these events "an attempt at political assassination."

On the published entry, Strache, while on Ibiza Island, allegedly discussed with a girl the financial support of his party in exchange for access to Austrian government contracts and the possibility of acquiring an Austrian publication of Kronen Zeitung.

• Heinz Christian Strache
• Reuters
• © Heinz-Peter Bader

The politician himself stated that in the video he was captured in a state of intoxication. He assessed his behavior as “stupid and irresponsible,” but at the same time stated that he did not receive any financial support from the people who were on the video. According to him, individual fragments of the video were cut out of the general context.

“I met this lady once during a private dinner during my vacation, after I had no contact with her, I never saw her again. There was no help from the party ... from the named persons, ”Strache said.

Later, the Kronen Zeitung newspaper reported that the former vice chancellor was the victim of a planned “operation”. According to the publication, the organizers spent about € 400 thousand preparing it in the hope of selling the resulting record for € 1.5-2 million. The newspaper clarifies that they managed to help out only € 600 thousand.

Kurtz himself, after the scandal over Strache and his subsequent resignation, announced that he intends to return to the work of the chancellor after the September elections.

“I hope that I will get a chance to continue the good work for the country in the role of the Federal Chancellor. I would like to continue our journey, ”he told Kronen Zeitung.

Commenting on the preliminary results of the parliamentary elections in Austria, Director of the Center for European Information, Associate Professor of MGIMO, Russian Foreign Ministry Nikolai Topornin noted that the results of the early elections were not a surprise.

“Almost all opinion polls showed that the party of Kurtz will gain in the range of 33-35%. We remember why Kurtz resigned, there was no government crisis. It was obvious that emergency elections would be held in the fall and Kurtz would try to win them again, which is what is happening, ”the source said.

According to him, the result was predictable and "the Austrians are in tune with Kurtz’s ideas."

“On the issue of migrants, he has a clear and understandable position that uncontrolled migration needs to be stopped and taken under control, in the economy he offers solutions aimed at improving the investment climate, in order to increase social payments,” Topornin continues.

At the same time, the analyst noted, under Kurtz, relations between Austria and Russia became stable. According to him, the victory of the former chancellor gives reason to believe that Austria will take a well-balanced, balanced position and will offer itself as a moderator to solve crisis phenomena, in particular, in normalizing relations between Brussels and Moscow.

“It is positive for Russia if Kurtz heads the government,” the expert said.