It is hard to shock the population of a country where racism and corruption have become so normalised that they are considered business as usual. Yet, the latest revelations of Austria’s “Ibiza scandal” are on an entirely new scale, setting in motion a complete meltdown of Austria’s coalition government.
Leaked video recordings show the now-resigned vice chancellor HC Strache and parliamentary whip Johann Gudenus offer Austrian contracts and assets, including the country’s most widely read media outlet, Kronen Zeitung, to Russian oligarchs in return for campaign support. It marks the climax in a series of political scandals of Austria’s far-right Freedom party (FPÖ). Just the past year saw the far-right deputy mayor of Braunau am Inn (Hitler’s birthplace) publish a poem comparing migrants to rats, high-ranking FPÖ politicians cultivate connections with neo-Nazi fraternities and the extreme-right identitarian movement, and the FPÖ-led interior ministry attempt to bring the national intelligence agency (BVT) under its control.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2HNYDAr
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