In the new Inside Austria podcast, SPIEGEL and STANDARD examine the network that made Sebastian Kurz great: how the Austrian first took over his party and then the whole country.
Kurz has sabotaged the government work of his own party, the ÖVP, and intrigued against party colleagues.
This is shown by hundreds of pages of confidential investigation files that STANDARD and SPIEGEL jointly evaluated.
The first podcast episode is about the beginning of Sebastian Kurz's career - a campaign that Kurz started in 2010 under the motto "black makes you horny".
That makes him famous, but also controversial.
A companion tells in the podcast how the defeat shaped Sebastian Kurz and what he learned from it for his further career.
What is happening in Austria is tantamount to a state affair: at the beginning of October, investigators from the Vienna Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office (WKStA) ordered searches of the Austrian Chancellery, the federal headquarters of the ÖVP Chancellor Party, the Ministry of Finance and one of the country's most important publishing houses.
"Electronic data and data carriers, servers, laptops, cell phones, removable data carriers" were to be ensured, according to the search order.
There has not been a comparable blow against the executive in Austria since the end of the Second World War.
The investigation is not only against Sebastian Kurz, but also against nine other accused, among other things because of suspicion of infidelity and aiding and abetting bribery.
You can also find an overview of all current developments and new revelations in the Kurz affair in our new Inside Austria newsletter.
