(Vienna) The Austrian parliament on Thursday lifted the parliamentary immunity of the conservative ex-chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who resigned in October following a corruption scandal.
Sebastian Kurz, 35, elected on an anti-immigration platform in 2017, stepped down as chancellor in October when he was targeted by an anti-corruption probe.
Since then, he has been protected from prosecution thanks to his status as leader of the parliamentary group of the conservative ÖVP party and as a member of parliament.
Mr Kurz, who rejects the corruption charges, had himself previously said that he wanted his immune immunity lifted so that the investigation could move forward. He said he wanted to fight the accusations, which he said were false, which cost him his post as chancellor.
The scandal erupted in October when several places, including the Chancellery and the Ministry of Finance, were raided as part of an investigation into suspicions of embezzlement of public funds between 2016 and 2018 by relatives of Mr. Kurz.
The purpose of this embezzlement was to finance the publication of falsified polls and laudatory media coverage of him in the media of an influential Austrian press group, Österreich. In exchange, the latter was rewarded with the purchase of lucrative advertising inserts, according to the suspicions of prosecutors.
Mr Kurz was the world’s youngest head of government when he was elected at the age of 31. The coalition he formed with the far right collapsed in 2019 when his ally found itself at the heart of a corruption scandal. New elections allowed him to regain his post of chancellor at the head of a coalition with the Greens.
Many political analysts believe that Mr. Kurz will try to make a “comeback”, his successor, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Schallenberg, being one of his relatives.