The youngest Austrian Prime Minister had to leave his position in October after the revelations of a series of scandals, while now at the head of the Conservatives.
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“I will now go and go get my son and companion in the hospital.” Thursday, December 2, so concluded Sebastian Kurz his press conference and ten years of political career as clear as early in Austria. At age 35, already twice as Chancellor, the leader of the Popular Popular Party (ÖVP, Conservative) announced his withdrawal of political life by brandishing the birth of his first child. There have been a few days earlier, it would have revealed to him “how much there are beautiful and important things outside of political life”.
Already forced to resign from the Chancery on October 9, Mr. Kurz also highlighted the “accusations” of corruption that multiplied against him in recent months. The Austrian anti-corruption floor leads two surveys in parallel against the responsible conservative leader, suspected of both false testimonials before Parliament and organizing a sizing system in his favor and financed by the taxpayer. “I am delighted by the day I can prove before the justice that these accusations are false,” kurz defended, who is currently not indicted in both files.
Younger political retiree
But he also felt that these cases, who resulted in searches to the Chancery, “reduced his flame into politics”, then “it takes 100% ardor” to do it. This “ardor”, on the other hand, he would have found in paternity. The news of this withdrawal of political life surprised Austria, although it is impossible to completely exclude a return after an early withdrawal. Mr. Kurz was still a few months ago the most powerful politician of this country of 8.9 million. Regularly presented as the Wunderkind (“prodigy child”), he had climbed all the levels of power at a blazing speed: Secretary of State at 24, Minister of Foreign Affairs at 27, Chancellor at 31. 35 years old , it is now the youngest political retiree.
At its climb, it has worked without a shame of political marketing strings by multiplying the opinion studies and changing convictions according to their results, as in the refugee crisis of 2015 which had done. Switch on a hard line on immigration. He was then able to ally with the extreme right between 2017 and 2019, with ecologists since 2020.
damaged image
Long profoundly popular in this country by the conservative majority, it seems to have underestimated how the revelations on the scenes of his successes could damage his image. The SMS of many of his relatives who have leaked in the press in recent months have shown a politicled man calculating and brittle, including for his own camp, also in free fall in polls. Always influential in this federal country, the ÖVP regional barons, all older, have gradually taken their distance.
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