Will Heinz Christian Strache make a comeback in Austria?

Following the victory of Giorgia Meloni in the recent Italian elections, attention is turning to neighbouring Austria and the future of the right-wing 'Freedom' political party FPÖ. Their former charismatic leader Heinz Christian Strache was ousted by a sting operation which lured him into a shabby staged video that compromised his reputation during his Ibiza vacation in July 2017, writes James Wilson.

Alongside Jörg Haider, who died in 2008, HC Strache was the second major FPÖ personality to have had a decisive influence on Austrian domestic politics for over 15 years. He led his FPÖ from 3% to over 26% in elections. In Vienna, HC Strache even achieved 31% as FPÖ mayoral candidate in 2015.

The so-called Ibiza scandal involved a video filmed at a private holiday dinner which presented Strache as corrupt. The final video edited “highlights’ were published in full (2020). During the filming Strache was demonstrably unwilling to take illegal or corrupt actions and has consistently rejected accusations to the contrary. However a short manipulatively edited video sequence which distorted the truth was published in the Spiegel and the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

In this edited film clip, Strache was portrayed as corrupt and indecent with the sole purpose of bringing him down by fair means or foul.

Strache resigned as Vice Chancellor and FPÖ leader on 20 May 2019. He resigned to ensure the successful continuation of the ÖVP-FPÖ government with his appointed successor Norbert Hofer with the promise of the then Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and on the other hand to protect his political party and family.

His FPÖ successors - Hofer, Kickl, Nepp - dropped him after his resignation, and have continued to defame him with another scandal, the so-called "expenses affair" which is still ongoing. Politics seems to be a thankless and dirty business indeed.

After the resignation of HC Strache, he achieved a direct EU mandate in the 2019 EU elections with over 40,000 preferential votes. But at the request of the new FPÖ leadership, he refrained from taking his seat.

After 3 years of scrutiny, more than 7 investigations were stopped by the public prosecutor's office, 2 charges were brought against Strache, both of which he won with an acquittal or with a judgment set aside by the Higher Regional Court. In three other open investigations against Strache, the public prosecutor's office even applied for a cessation, but the Green-led Ministry of Justice with Alma Zadic rejected these cessation requests.

There is still an open Casino-Austria-AG (CASAG) investigation against Strache, where he still does not know what he is specifically accused of based on an anonymous defamatory complaint in May 2019. This anonymous report was the reason and pretext for a house search in August 2019, which triggered all the other procedures by the public prosecutor.

In the end, all that remains is the so-called expenses procedure, where there are efforts to criminalise the expenses for Strache approved by the FPÖ organs in the course of his 14-year chairmanship. In the case of the expenses, the same persons who were behind the Ibiza scandal appear to be coordinating matters. Clarification is needed from the police and the public prosecutor's office about the next steps in this case.

But if he is successful in finally clearing his name, a comeback to mainstream politics may be on the cards.

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