Politics From Across the Globe

[Sheilbh]

The lesson I'm learning from this is that dads need to be stopped.

[Syt]

Politico has summed up the Austrian events.

https://www.politico.eu/article/austrian-government-hanging-by-thread-chancellor-sebastian-kurz-investigation/

Austrian government teeters as Greens look for exit

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz under suspicion of bribery and embezzlement in corruption probe.

Austria's government was hanging by a thread Thursday after Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's junior coalition partner questioned whether he could remain in office as he faces a criminal investigation into corruption allegations.

Greens leader Werner Kogler, whose party has been in coalition with Kurz's People's Party since early 2020, met with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on Thursday to consult about a way forward. Kurz told Austrian public television late Monday that he had no intention of resigning and has dismissed prosecutors' allegations against him as "manufactured."

"We can't just return to business as usual," Kogler said in a statement before his meeting with the president. "The capacity of the chancellor to carry out the duties of his office under these circumstances is in question. We must ensure stability and order."

The probe against Kurz and nine close associates concerns allegations that he masterminded a scheme, beginning when he was foreign minister in 2016, to fuel his rise to power by diverting public funds to buy off pollsters and journalists.   

The nature of the accusations would give any coalition partner pause, but has put the Greens in a particular bind because the party has sold itself to voters as a force against corruption. Attempts by Kurz and his allies to discredit the authorities' investigation — earlier this week a prominent conservative MP claimed "left-wing cells" in the prosecutor's office were behind the investigations — have further strained relations between the governing parties. 

Kurz, who met separately with Van der Bellen late Thursday, said afterward that he saw no reason not to preserve the coalition with the Greens.

"We stand by this government," he said.

Yet at this stage, the government's survival no longer depends on him.

Kogler's statement on Thursday triggered a chain of events that many observers believe will inevitably hasten the collapse of the current coalition. The Green leader said he intended to meet with the other parties represented in parliament in the coming days, a process seen as a possible prelude to a four-party alliance against Kurz's People's Party.

Parliamentary leaders scheduled a special session for Tuesday to discuss the affair and opposition parties, all of which have called on Kurz to step down, said they intended to call a no-confidence vote against him. The opposition needs only six Green votes in order to achieve the simple majority they'd need to remove Kurz from office.

Such a move could pave the way for the Greens to join the other three parties represented in the parliament — the Social Democrats, the liberal Neos and the far-right Freedom Party — in a broad-based alliance. That would likely only function as a minority government with the tacit support of the Freedom Party, however, because including the far-right would be too divisive for the others.

Another option would be for the president, who holds the power to name a chancellor, to put a technocratic government in place, as he did after the collapse of Kurz's first coalition following the Ibiza affair, until a new election could be held.

The easiest solution to the crisis would be for Kurz to resign and for someone else in his party to take over as chancellor while keeping the coalition with the Greens in place. The next regular election isn't due until the fall of 2024.

Under Austria's constitution, the process of switching chancellors in the middle of a legislative period is straightforward because voters elect parties and not a government leader. 

But the People's Party made clear on Thursday that it wanted Kurz to be chancellor and only Kurz.

In a show of solidarity with the chancellor, People's Party Cabinet officials and influential party interest groups, such as the seniors' association, said Kurz had their full confidence, as did the party's powerful regional leaders. The latter group, consisting of several state governors, was expected to meet in Vienna on Thursday evening with the chancellor. 

The associations said in a statement that Kurz was the target of a concerted effort to remove him from office. They were silent about who was supposedly behind the alleged plot, however.

"Sebastian Kurz has our full support," said Ingrid Korosec, president of the People's Party Seniors. "Like all previous accusations against him, these too will turn out to be false."

In addition to the allegations of corruption leveled against Kurz this week, he is under investigation for committing perjury in testimony to parliament. An indictment in that case is expected any day.

After the German elections there were voices in the CDU saying the party should renew, and Kurz's ÖVP could be a template.

Also, I loved Kurz's deflection on TV. Basically, he didn't know or associated much with the other people accused. And even if they did those things they're accused of, and plotted to make him chancellor, what does that have to do with him? 

[celedhring]

Genuinely named after Stalin. He was born four days after Stalin died so his dad thought it'd be a nice tribute - which sounds like a friend of mine who has a wild middle name because her dad felt like it when he went to the registry office

I have a cousin the was named ben-hur. Now he wasn't named that when he was born. His father saw the film when he my cousin was like 5 and decided he liked the name so much he renamed his son

My brother is named after Raymond Burr because my father loved Perry Mason so fucking much.

[Syt]

So the Greens have declared they won't continue the coalition with Kurz. They're asking from the ÖVP a "person above reproach (untadelig)" as chancellor if they want to continue (cynics are saying finding such a person in the high ranks of the ÖVP is not possible).

[Josquius]

The lesson I'm learning from this is that dads need to be stopped.

I wanted to give my kid the middle initial C. Just that.

But the rules said both parents had to go register. Pff.

[Syt]

Additional chat protocols have leaked. Kurz (the foreign minister) and his paladins torpedoed a pretty much agreed law to provide significantly more funding to public child care. The law had support across government and opposition party lines, and was popular in the public view, but Kurz and Co. killed it behind the scenes to publicly humiliate their own party's vice-chancellor Mitterlehner and kill the coalition and take over afterwards. This all happened while Mitterlehner's daughter was suffering from a terminal illness and literally died while these events unfolded.

(The law remained buried afterwards.)

[The Larch]

Lovely people.

[Syt]

Kurz resigns, nominates Schallenberg (foreign minister) as new chancellor. Kurz will remain party chairman and leader of the ÖVP faction in parliament. Which raises immediate questions about whether Schallenberg (who doesn't have a high profile) is basically a puppet.

The speech was the usual. "I've always worked hard for the country", "many politicians were investigated, but the coalition partner never threatened to blow up the government" (well, so far it's not been the chancellor himself), "to ensure stability over the coming months", "these are old allegations from 2016, and they're not true" etc.

Remains to be seen if this will be enough for the Greens to continue the coalition.

[Zanza]

I heard the German Christian Democrats are looking for a new leader.

[Syt]

 

The Greens have signaled they're ok with the new arrangement.

One of the funniest things is that on Friday there was an emphatic declaration that if Kurz resigns, all others of their ministers would resign, too. Not a one of them is stepping down now. 

[Syt]

The new sockpuppet Chancellor.

[Sheilbh]

So....there's a lot going on here

Czech president in hospital after shock election defeat for PM
Fears of a political crisis as Miloš Zeman, an ally of Andrej Babiš, is admitted to intensive care unit
Robert Tait in Prague
Sun 10 Oct 2021 19.58 BST

The Czech Republic is facing political upheaval and a possible power vacuum after its billionaire prime minister, Andrej Babiš, suffered a surprise general election defeat and then saw his most powerful backer and sole potential saviour, the country's president, Miloš Zeman, taken to hospital, apparently gravely ill.

In a stunning upset that confounded pollsters' forecasts, Babiš' populist Action for Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) 2011 party finished second in this weekend's popular vote behind the centre-right Spolu (Together) alliance, which previously vowed not to form a government with him.

Spolu followed up its victory by agreeing to start coalition talks with a liberal-left faction, Piráti-STAN, after the two blocs won a total of 108 seats in the 200-member chamber of deputies in the poll, staged on Friday and Saturday.

Babiš' hand appeared to become weaker still on Sunday as television cameras captured Zeman – who has repeatedly promised to do all he could to keep the prime minister in office – being transported to hospital in an ambulance minutes after the pair had met at the president's countryside retreat to discuss the results.

Miroslav Zavoral, the head of Prague's central military hospital, later told journalists that Zeman had been admitted owing to "complications that accompany a chronic illness" and said the president was being treated in an intensive care unit. The nature of the illness was not disclosed.

Czech media outlets published footage and images of Zeman, a heavy smoker, being wheeled into hospital, apparently unconscious, with a bodyguard holding his head, and in the presence of his wife and daughter.

Speculation about the health of 77-year-old Zeman, who uses a wheelchair and has neuropathy and type 2 diabetes, was rife in the run-up to the poll, leading commentators to question his fitness to conduct his constitutional post-election duty of inviting parties to form a government.

Zeman's spokesman, Jiří Ovčáček, who had previously dismissed reports that his boss was seriously ill despite an eight-day hospital stay last month, pleaded with politicians and journalists on Twitter to exercise a "sensitive approach" and wish the president an early recovery.

The president's condition has a direct bearing on Babiš' political survival because Zeman has said he would invite the leader of the biggest single party to form a government, a status applying to ANO 2011, despite its overall election defeat. The prime minister's party won 72 seats, one more than Spolu, which is an alliance of three parties, the Civic Democrats (ODS), the Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL) and the pro-EU Top 09.

Although Babiš, a billionaire former oligarch whose industrial conglomerate, Agrofert, controls large chunks of the Czech economy, has no clear path to a viable coalition, analysts believe he could exploit an interregnum period, during which he serves as interim prime minister by seeking to retain power through dividing Spolu and trying to reach an agreement with one of its constituent parties.

Meanwhile, there were calls for parliament to invoke a constitutional clause that would declare Zeman unfit and pass his powers temporarily to the prime minister and the speaker of the chamber of deputies. The latter – currently a Babiš ally – would then have the president's responsibility of choosing who to ask to form a new government. However, the opposition is expected to vote for a new speaker when the newly elected parliament comes into being later this month.

Jiří Pehe, a political scientist and director of New York University in Prague, said the Czech Republic could plunge into a political crisis.

"The opposition groupings have formed a unity pact, so Babiš needs the president to back him and ask him to start talking about a new government," said Pehe. "It seems the president may not be able to do that for some time – or ever.

"It's a very complicated situation constitutionally if the president cannot act in his customary post-election role. If it drags on, parliament may have to step in and declare him unfit to perform his duties. It could be a constitutional crisis. It was so irresponsible of those around Mr Zeman not to have prepared by notifying parliament that he was ill and that it should suspend his duties, or else talk the president into abdicating or stepping down."

Petr Fiala, Spolu's leader and a former political science professor, is widely seen as favourite to succeed Babiš as premier. Fiala, a centre-right politician who campaigned in broad opposition to Babiš' populism, had requested to meet Zeman on Monday to discuss forming a coalition. It was unclear whether the meeting could take place.

Babiš' defeat followed the disclosure last week of damaging details about his financial arrangement in the Pandora Papers, which revealed that he had used a network of offshore companies to buy a mansion and other properties in the French Riviera for £13m in 2009. The prime minister denied wrongdoing and dismissed the revelations as a plot designed to undermine his election chances.

Some commentators warned he may remain in office for months, despite his electoral setback, especially if Zeman's health recovers.

"Should he decide to continue doing so, Andrej Babiš could well rule in resignation here until well into 2022," wrote David Klimeš on the Aktuálně news website. "The five-party coalition has a difficult task ahead of it. When the post-election enthusiasm wears off, it will have to jump over all the sticks and traps that Andrej Babiš and Miloš Zeman are now setting under its feet."

I believe the real problem for Babis wasn't how his party performed but the fact that the Social Democrats who were his coalition partners and the Communists who broadly supported the government fell under the 5% threshold so have no seats (first time there's no party of the left in parliament). I think the Pirates and Mayors party hates him and the far-right are too small. So there doesn't seem to be a route for him to keep power - but he is a billionaire so he might do something and this chaos feels like it could be helpful for him, I don't know :bink:

[Syt]

[Syt]

Schallenberg is pointing out almost excessively that he will work closely with Kurz, will contnue Kurz's policies, and that the "Kurz system" will continue.

Which becomes even funnier when you compare Kurz's and his tweets about their first trip taking them to Brussels (Kurz's tweet was hastily deleted after people pointed out the duplication).





EDIT: Apparently it's not a copy from Kurz's post, but rather that the social media team posted it ot the wrong account at first.

[Savonarola]

Actual news story (from CNN):

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused of making a sexist remark to a female journalist at an event this week.



Well that destroys my faith in the integrity of brutal despots who run murderous regimes.