The word “House of Kurz” may mean the end of the Austrian chancellor

Misuse of government funds, influence on the press, and criminalization of app conversations. After police raids of ministries, the ÖVP party office and the chancellery on Wednesday, Austria was caught off guard by an unprecedented political scandal. The brilliant career of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, 35, appears to have been the result of bribery, political planning and abuse of power.

Austrians are already talking about Pete KurtzComparison with Machiavellian Frank Underwood from the American Netflix series house of paper After all, he insists. By opinion polls, Kurz had surrendered first to the leader of his party, and then won the chancellorship. The script for this command was called directly Ballhausplatz . project, to the official residence of the head of the Austrian government.

German correspondent Wouter Zwart believes that “Kurz has already survived a lot of crises and allegations, but now it will be very difficult for him.” “He and the whole gang around him, who call themselves the family, are named after him. It seems there was an apparent campaign to put Kurtz on the shield.”

short game

Austrian prosecutors happened to come across messages about the grassroots campaign in the app’s chats on the seized phones. The prosecution identifies ten people, including Kurz himself and his closest associates. “Sebastian Kurz was the focus, and all the crimes were in his best interest,” the prosecutor said.

Kurtz was a political prodigy, Hope for the future of the conservative Volks Party, which struggled for the right to find a response to the FPÖ. A 24-year-old state minister, foreign minister three years later and aspiring to become chancellor in 2017.

“He had the image of a handsome young politician, and we also got to know Obama, Trudeau and Macron at the time,” Zwart says. “If not for the propaganda campaign he’s accused of now, he would have survived. You can ask yourself: A boy like that doesn’t need that, right?”