This
Süddeutsche Zeitung commentator, Peter Münch, points to Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz' core approach to politics, which in my mind makes him an Austrian Richard Nixon: willing to recklessly demagogue on issues, a strong authoritarian bent, and completely lacking in any actual political principles. It comes in the context of Kurz' response to revelations on Friday that lead to the resignation in disgrace Saturday of his Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache of the far-right FPÖ. Kurz' Christian Democratic conservative party (ÖVP) is the senior partner in the current government coalition, which since yesterday is functioning in an interim capacity until new national elections, which are expected in September.
Münch writes:
Here, too, it is all about the personal power calculations with which he brought the FPÖ into government a year and a half ago, despite all the foreseeable consequences. Now he thinks the time has come to capture a few more votes in the new elections.
Kurz is therefore speculating that he will be rewarded for his own irresponsibility. But he is to blame for making the FPÖ respectable. If his goal was to tame the right-wing populists by giving them responsibility, that has failed spectacularly. [my translation]
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