For 318,000 followers, the new year began with a surprise: On Instagram, ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who was obviously in a great mood, reported to interested parties from Austria and the rest of the world about his “first year without a political function”, as well as about his life as a happy father and transcontinental entrepreneur.
"May 2023 be a good one," Kurz wished his followers.
He may well have expressed this hope for himself.
The public prosecutor's office continues to investigate Kurz on suspicion of making false statements and aiding and abetting bribery and breach of trust.
Toxic cocktail
"The cocktail of corruption and crises is poison," said former party leader Reinhold Mitterlehner in the news magazine "profil".
And Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen stated in his New Year's speech that unfortunately there were still "doubts about the integrity of politics" in Austria.
The "water damage" caused by corruption affairs on the building of the Austrian democracy is far from being repaired.
Worse still: »The general renovation has still not started.«
The head of state was wasting valuable broadcasting time with his inconsequential appeals, Herbert Kickl, head of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), rumbled.
There is only one answer to the inaction of the black-green government: new elections at national level.
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Chokehold of the ÖVP
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Kickl has good things to say: The FPÖ is now, depending on the survey institute, ahead of or on par with the SPÖ, in first place in the public's favour.
And that almost three years after the Ibiza affair, which triggered the flood of current corruption investigations in the first place.
In the upcoming state elections in Lower Austria on January 29, the ruling ÖVP is threatened with double-digit losses.
The Freedom Party demands "to free our country from the stranglehold of the ÖVP."
The head of the People's Party, Chancellor Karl Nehammer, is still demonstratively calm.
After several climate activists had been arrested in advance, he appeared at the traditional New Year's concert in the Wiener Musikverein.
With a nutcracker smile on his face, Nehammer presented himself side by side with Bulgaria's head of state Rumen Radew.
Diplomacy with Radetzky March
Radew should be appeased by the Philharmoniker with the help of the Radetzky March, among other things - Austria's veto against Bulgaria's accession to the Schengen zone had recently caused considerable resentment in Sofia.
It is not known whether the Bulgarian repeated his central accusation on the fringes of the concert: namely that Austria's objection to Bulgaria's admission was motivated more by domestic politics.
In plain language: that one wants to distinguish oneself at the expense of other countries with a hard line on migration issues.
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And once again a note on our own behalf: You can order this briefing as a newsletter to your e-mail inbox here.
Kind regards,
Walter Mayr (Correspondent for Austria and Southeast Europe, DER SPIEGEL)
