Austrian Govt Collapses When Far Right Courts Putin's Influence

[Milchshake]

On Going In; The Transnation Right Undermines Democracies

From the US, Brexit, Italy, Hungary, and now in Austria. The alliance between oligarchs and nationalist political parties continues to pull at the threads holding democracies together.

Does Austria finally draw the line, and impose a political cost for openly courting Russian influence?

Austrian government collapses over Russia scandal!

Turns out Russian collusion isn’t a “witch hunt hoax” after all. At least not in Austria. The country’s government collapsed on Saturday after Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said he was pulling the plug on his ruling coalition after just 17 months in office.

The move came barely 24 hours after the release of a bombshell video showing Heinz-Christian Strache, the far-right leader of his junior coalition partner, trying to trade public contracts for party donations from a woman he believed to be the wealthy niece of a Russian oligarch. [(He resigned on Saturday.)] …

The government crisis was a blow to the youthful chancellor who sees himself as the future of European conservatism and whose international stardom won him a private dinner with Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner in February. …

Given the gravity of the scandal — in the video Strache offered to exchange lucrative government contracts for campaign donations with a supposed Russian millionaire and discussed how to hide the payments from authorities — Kurz appeared to have concluded that pulling the plug was the only way he could shield his own party from the affair.


Kinda makes me wonder what really happened in the Australian elections just now?

[Mayhem]

I just hope our Chancellor doesn't come out clean from this, he helped them for 17 months.

[Kaleredar]

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

One should never shy away from exposing corruption because it is "inconvenient." Hopefully the people of Austria can make a better choice for their country in the future.

[josykay]

And it got worse. Strache lied to the press, saying it was just an isolated meetup, while also bring drunk. Seemingly they kept contact for some time.

[lagiacrux]

last saturday was such a good day:

- strache resigned
- gudenus resigned
- the coalition is in shambles
and the two coalition partners already started flinging shit at each other

as someone who dislikes both parties ... this is just a treat to watch. a coalition that was always pretended to be best buddies, didnt even need 48h to burn down like the dumpsterfire it was.

EDIT: and i almost forgot ... bayern won the german championship

[Shalcker]

Quite interesting who did that sting though. And sat on it for two years.

Why now, exactly? EU election interference?

[Mekh]

Quite interesting who did that sting though. And sat on it for two years.

Why now, exactly? EU election interference?

Considering the goldfish memory of the average voter, airing these secrets when it makes a difference is just good strategy, really.

[Shalcker]

Considering the goldfish memory of the average voter, airing these secrets when it makes a difference is just good strategy, really.

And who exactly is interested in releasing it now out of all who might have done that? US? UK?

[Mayhem]

And who exactly is interested in releasing it now out of all who might have done that? US? UK?

Who gives a shit? Better late than never!

[Shalcker]

Who gives a shit? Better late than never!

You are not interested who exactly interferes with EU State/Parliament politics and why?

If their purpose was be pure, those who did it could present it themselves openly.

[Mayhem]

You are not interested who exactly interferes with EU State/Parliament politics and why?

If their purpose was be pure, those who did it could present it themselves openly.

Interfere? Are you high?

The vice chancellor was trying to sell out the country and you're asking if I'm interested WHO interferes with politics?

Damn, you russians are funny people, allways killing the messenger first.

[Shalcker]

Interfere? Are you high?
The vice chancellor was trying to sell out the country and you're asking if I'm interested WHO interferes with politics?

"Hillary Clinton conspired with DNC to skrew Sanders, noone cares who released that info".

...plenty did though.

[Mayhem]

"Hillary Clinton conspired with DNC to skrew Sanders, noone cares who released that info".

...plenty did though.

This isn't the US, I'm not American, I care way more about the message than about the time, place, who the messenger was or what the weather was when he arrived.

[Shalcker]

This isn't the US, I'm not American, I care way more about the message than about the time, place, who the messenger was or what the weather was when he arrived.

What if it was Russians all along? Maybe they got better deal from other parties :P

[Mayhem]

What if it was Russians all along? Maybe they got better deal from other parties :P

You don't really get it do you?

[Mekh]

Even if all side were doing it (they're not), why is it always the same people trying to defend the guys who are not just doing it, but doing it in such an incompetent way that leads to them getting caught, coked up and drunk offering to sell out their country? Yeah, it was a trap. But nobody forced Strache to step into it. He did it all by himself and proved once again: in vino veritas.

[Shalcker]

Even if all side were doing it (they're not), why is it always the same people trying to defend the guys who are not just doing it, but doing it in such an incompetent way that leads to them getting caught, coked up and drunk offering to sell out their country? Yeah, it was a trap. But nobody forced Strache to step into it. He did it all by himself and proved once again: in vino veritas.

Where do you see defence?

I'm just not interested in internal Austrian politics that much, and don't care who exactly gets implicated in what there (other then reaffirming that veneer of law is fairly thin and pay-to-play still happens in EU).

Broad implications of "why" and "who" (and "why now") are more interesting.

[ati87]

Quite interesting who did that sting though. And sat on it for two years.

Why now, exactly? EU election interference?

Most parties put zero effort in the EU elections, it's why the extreme right do so well.
But on the same note, if you wanted to destroy any party you would not use the EU elections to release damming evidence but the general election.

[pathora44]

Guys just ignore our resident Putin shill. If you ignore him enough then he won't get his daily allotment of turnips for the day from papa Putin.

[Togashii]

B

Guys just ignore our resident Putin shill. If you ignore him enough then he won't get his daily allotment of turnips for the day from papa Putin.

Nah, his hetro-life partner (rda) will be here to earn enough turnips for them both