Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (35, ÖVP) is history. His successor Alexander Schallenberg (52, ÖVP) was sworn in on Monday in Vienna. And made it immediately clear that he would “naturally” work closely with his party leader Kurz, who was accused of corruption. He thinks the allegations are wrong. The political chaos in the neighboring country could have a positive side effect for Switzerland: the new Chancellor and the new Foreign Minister are experts on Switzerland.
Christoph Bubb (68) was the Swiss ambassador in Vienna until October 2017. And knows: “Schallenberg has a closer relationship to Switzerland than was written. His mother is Swiss. And her father was Alfred Schaefer, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Swiss Bank Corporation. “
The foreign minister is also familiar with Switzerland
The new Foreign Minister, Michael Linhart (63), also knows Switzerland very well: “He is a Vorarlberg native from Bregenz on Lake Constance, a mountaineer and very knowledgeable about Switzerland.” For Switzerland, the new line-up is certainly not a deterioration. “Nevertheless, you shouldn’t set your expectations too high.”
The two neighboring countries are very sympathetic to each other. And in the past, the Austrians repeatedly brought Swiss concerns to Brussels. But: “Austria is part of the European Union. And if something is decided against Swiss interests in Brussels, Austria will stick to it too. “
How realistic are Kurz’s comeback ambitions?
The experienced diplomat does not want to get involved in a prognosis of how the chancellor scandal in Austria could go on: “In Austria they say: ‘Look, we’ll see.” write off early: “I would not definitely bury a return from Kurz to the Chancellery – if there is no direct connection between him and these payments.” And: He must be able to make credible that his verbal derailments in the leaked text messages were one-time slip-ups.
Background: In the text messages that had become public and were confiscated by the public prosecutor’s office, Kurz intrigued unrestrainedly against allies. And whoever did not suit him was sometimes called an “ass”. Another accusation: The clique around the Chancellor is said to have bought media reports and paid for them with tax money.
Pronounced “Freunderlwirtschaft” in Austria
Ex-Ambassador Bubb does not like to speak of a fundamental corruption problem in our neighboring country. But: “The fact is that there is a pronounced friendship economy in Austria. An association of the political actors. There are close links between politics, business, culture and the media. ” Good examples are the ball season in January or the opening of the Salzburg Festival in summer. “Everyone is there who have rank and name and who control the fate of the country. You don’t know that in Switzerland. “
The question of how close this friendly economy was to the accused ex-Chancellor Kurz and his co-accused – and whether he exceeded the limits of legality – should occupy Austria for even longer.