Austria's political-media complex has just forgotten about Covid and Putin: Because it's all about Sebastian Kurz and his intimate Thomas Schmid again. Schmid, who until yesterday was treated as a felon by the media and the parliamentary opposition, now wants to be a state witness, probably to save his skin, and some already see Kurz in prison.
Kurz and no end
Even if this were to happen, it would take many years. Karl-Heinz Grasser still occupies the political-media complex and the judiciary. That Kurz is threatened with a Grasser fate cannot be ruled out, but Grasser is still not in prison.
And it would undoubtedly take more evidence than a statement by Schmid, who, as we know, likes to talk (or write) a lot. But that is the superficial story that emerges from Schmid's testimony at the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office. A small part of the deep, many-coloured swamp of the Second Republic is being scrutinised more closely. Fair enough, but probably not very substantial.
The script
Important contexts surrounding the small political world of Vienna's 1st district are also almost universally suppressed. Some points should be taken into consideration when it comes to the current media outrage. And if you observe closely, you might think it is just the next act of a script.
For there is an enormously suspicious timing: Enough media makers who like to boast about their contacts with the judiciary could have published the new developments even before the election on 9 October. The new wave of indignation would certainly not have done the Van der Bellen 2 project any good. But now the old green man is back in the Hofburg.
New elections could thus be calmly awaited, even if the FPÖ becomes the strongest party. The odds are not bad at all, especially if Pamela Rendi-Wagner were to lead the SPÖ into an election campaign. But even then a government will be sworn in that has to be halfway in line. Even if the FPÖ has to be hemmed in to do so, or there will be a government "against the right". But we are still a long way from that.
The Greens, the kingmakers, are the decision-makers.
This is where the next circumstance comes into play, why some suspect that we are now really living through the last days (or weeks) of the first ÖVP-Green government. After the presidential election, the migration issue was played up. It has been simmering there for some time. But now, by having the Minister of the Interior accommodate refugees and immigrants in tents, the ÖVP is again putting the Greens under pressure.
Welcoming people regardless of their reasons is a core element of the Greens' party programme. Pressure against the tent action also came immediately from the Green base. And the migration issue will remain hot for the next few months and could even really start to boil, should a new large-scale flight movement from Ukraine come.
Unlike Corona, Austria's proximity to NATO or the EU's war course, migration is the issue that could lead to the end of the coalition. Precisely because the Greens are the way they are. The Green kingmaker, he could jump off. Or can Kogler, Maurer and Gewessler really pacify the party, just with the argument that the judiciary must investigate in peace?
One more remark on the investigations by the WKStA:
René Benko, at whose Signa Holding a house search has now been carried out (the order for the house search has been published) in connection with Thomas Schmid, not only has the best connections to Kurz. Alfred Gusenbauer, against whose appearance in the "Ibiza U Committee" (which triggered the whole investigation) the SPÖ has always massively opposed, sits on the supervisory board of Signa. As does Susanne Riess-Passer, former FPÖ vice-chancellor. For building projects in the Republic, people always like to fall back on Signa. Especially in Vienna. To reduce Benko to the Turkish ÖVP would be far too short-sighted.
-translatet with deepL.com