What was the youngest minister in the history of a European Union country – it happened in 2013 at the age of 27 when he was appointed foreign minister – and the youngest chancellor of the Second Republic in Austria, is now also the youngest former chancellor for the second time. Sebastian Kurz, ‘Basti’ as he is nicknamed above all by the opposition parties, resigned as chancellor tonight. The future of Austria, a buffer nation between Italy and Germany and historically very close to Italy also for the decades of the South Tyrolean question and its role as guardian power of South Tyrol, is uncertain for the moment. the President of the Republic, Alexander Van der Bellen, should accept Kurz’s resignation and, if he deems it, hand over the country to Kurz’s designated chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, currently Foreign Minister.
Accusations of infidelity and corruption in an advertising affair when he was still foreign minister (2016) weigh on the now 35-year-old former Austrian premier from Vienna, close to becoming father from the union with his partner Susanne Thier. Kurz was investigated a few days ago by the Austrian Public Prosecutor’s Office for Affairs and Corruption (WKStA) following an investigation involving people close to him both in the OeVP and the Chancellor’s party. Among the nodes of the dispute a series of polls that seem to have been financed with taxpayers’ money from the Ministry of Finance through fictitious bills for the benefit of Kurz. Kurz’s second government mandate, the one with the Greens, lasted 641 days, a little longer than the first (526 days) when he was prime minister of a coalition with the FPOe, the Liberals. In total Kurz ruled 1,167 days, becoming the eighth longest-serving prime minister of the fifteen that have followed one another since 1945, the year in which the Second Republic began.
The first time Kurz resigned following the Ibiza-gate outbreak in the spring of 2019 which involved his then deputy chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache (FPOe) filmed with hidden cameras while he was trying to make deals with alleged Russian agents. in exchange for support during the 2018 election campaign. The turquoise government fell on May 27, 2019. Austria, in the meantime led by a government of technicians led by Brigitte Bierlein, went to the polls. Kurz’s OeVP won again and during the Christmas period the coalition with the Greens led by Werner Kogler, who later became vice-chancellor, was born. The longest-serving Austrian Federal Chancellor was Bruno Kreisky (SPOe) who headed the government from April 1970 to May 1983 (just over 13 years). Franz Vranitzky (SPOe) has the second longest term with ten and a half years in the Chancellery (June 1986-January 1997), followed by Julias Raab (OeVP; April 1953-April 1961) with eight, Werner Faymann (SPOe; December 2008) -May 2016) and Leopold Figl (OeVP; December 1945-April 1953) with over seven years each.