Thursday, December 02, 2021
Son, flame, reproaches
Briefly explains why he is leaving politics
At the age of 35, the former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced his departure from politics. The main reason is believed to be the investigations against him that could end up imprisoning him. However, Kurz himself portrays it very differently.
“Thank you”, “ten years” and “honor” were the three most frequent terms in his short farewell address to the press in Vienna, in that order. Former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said that he was “extremely grateful” for everything he and his “team” had succeeded in; it was “a great honor” for him to be able to “serve the republic for ten years”. Spoke it and disappeared. “I’m going to leave now and pick up my son and my girlfriend from the hospital,” he said. He didn’t answer any questions.
With Kurz, someone who started as the world’s youngest head of government in 2017 is stepping down. He was Austrian Chancellor, first with the FPÖ until 2019, and then with the Greens from 2020 to 2021 after the “Ibiza Affair”. Four years ago he was federal chairman of the “Young People’s Party”, the Austrian equivalent of the Young Union. He took his “farewell to politics” at the age of 35.
Kurz had resigned as Chancellor in October after the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA) confirmed that they were investigating him for breach of trust, corruption and bribery. He remained head of the conservative ÖVP and also became the leader of the ÖVP parliamentary group in the Austrian parliament, the Nationalrat. This lifted Kurz’s immunity in mid-November, clearing the way for further corruption investigations.
“Beautiful things outside of politics too”
Shortly before the press went into the investigation only marginally. His main reason for leaving politics was the birth of his son on November 27th. This made him aware of “how many beautiful things there are outside of politics”.
He went on to say that he has done politics “with 100 percent enthusiasm” over the past ten years, and that has changed, Kurz said. After such a long time, it is a “natural process that enthusiasm becomes less”, but “the last few months” have also contributed to this, because he was busy with “defending against accusations, allegations, proceedings”. This has “made his flame a little smaller”. Kurz portrayed it as normal to have to deal with allegations in a top position – at least that’s what colleagues from home and abroad would have told him, he claimed.
“I don’t want to say today that I never did anything wrong,” said Kurz. He “did not manage to live up to my own claims at certain moments” and was “neither a saint nor a criminal”. Now he is looking forward to the day “even if it can take years” when he will prove in court that the allegations against him are false.
“The honor of my life”
He always did his best, according to Kurz, and “always valued political disputes very much”. Increasing small pensions and relieving small incomes was “the honor of my life”. He and his team had “placed their work for the republic above almost anything else,” said Kurz.
This team is said to have promoted Kurz’s rise since 2016 through embellished surveys and bought positive media reports. In return, large sums of money, including taxpayers’ money, are said to have been used for advertisements. Against Kurz, there are also investigations into the allegation of false testimony in the committee of inquiry into the “Ibiza affair”.
He is looking forward to “spending time with my child and family before I dedicate myself to new professional tasks in the new year,” Kurz said. However, he will still need a large part of his time to “defend himself against the allegations”. If he does not succeed, he faces up to ten years imprisonment, according to the “Wiener Zeitung”.