The Austria report starts just after 15:30.
Her report was generally good. With Rachel Maddow, I always find myself thinking, "that's good, but ..." The "but" usually has to do with her perpetually perky-snarkiness, which is a little too much even for me. And while she doesn't just make stuff up like on FOX News, she is sometimes careless around the edges.
Her description of the Austrian government that fell apart this past week is basically accurate. Her description of the scandal video was decent. Her description of the FPÖ's Russian ties was accurate, and it's a big deal. The other European countries' intelligence agencies don't consider Austrian intelligence to be reliable on keeping sources and methods secret, particualarly from Russia and have restricted cooperation with them, as she reports. And she's right about how Austria's Chancellor Sebastian "Babyface" Kurz gave the Interior Ministry (internal security) and Defense to the far-right FPÖ (Freedom Party). She even understates that a bit - uncharacteristic for her! - because Babyface proposed giving the FPÖ the Justice Ministry as well, and the President (Alexander Van der Bellen) as head of state refused to approved FPÖ appointees for all ehrte. so Justice went to the (Christian Democratic) ÖVP.
But giving the Interior Ministry to the repulsive Herbert Kickl was the worst. He wasn't one of the two Ibiza party boys in the scandal video. But he's actually the main strategist of the party and is also a Dick Cheney level of an awful person. Since early in Kickl's term as Interior Minister, the other European countries' intelligence agencies don't consider Austrian intelligence to be reliable on keeping sources and methods secret, particularly from Russia and have restricted cooperation with them.
One odd thing about Rachel's report, though, is that she doesn't mention the names of the main players. I did like her snarky dig at Sebastian Kurz about take-your-baby-Chancellor-to-work-day. But she referred to him as "this guy" without ever mentioning his actual name! Same with the two guys in the scandal video, (now former) Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache and (now former) FPO parliamentary leader Johann Gudenus, and also (now former) Interior Miister Herbert Kickl. Her description of the process of Kurz forming his government in 2017 was accurate but a bit sloppy, i.e., she talks about "the young Chancellor" forming the government. But he wasn't Chancellor until he actually did form a government approved by the President..
Rachel tends to talk about Russian meddling as master statecraft. But while encouraging and promoting the far-right parties does contribute to political instability, picking careless thugs like Strache and Gudenus hasn't necessarily strengthened the position and reputation of the Putinist parties. It's bound to make at least the CDU in Germany more leery of cooperating with the far-right AfD. Also, Kurz' government was fawning in its pro-Russian diplomacy. But it fell apart quicker than any Austrian government since WWII. And in a spectacularly embarrassing way. Kurz himself on Monday faces a no-confidence vote that could make him the only post-WWII Austrian Chancellor to be removed from office a parliamentary vote.
Describing the FPÖ as "the party that was founded by the ex-Nazis" is accurate. Although the more relevant fact is that 64 years after they were founded, they still cultivate that perspective, usually technically within the constraints of the anti-Nazi law. The social-democratic and Christian Democratic parties also incorporated ex Nazi Party members after WWII. The occupying powers made a conscious decision not to disenfranchise voters or forbid people from holding office just on the basis of NSDAP membership. But the SPÖ and ÖVP were parties that included fromer Nazis. The FPÖ was founded as the party of politically unrepentent ex-Nazis, although they had to conform to the anti-Nazi laws, so they were at least nominally a pro-democracy party. (See: Margit Reiter, Anton Reinthaller und die Anfänge der Freiheitlichen Partei Österreichs Vierteljahrhefte für Zeitgeschichte 66:2018) And some FPÖ figures over the decades actually did try to push the FPÖ into a more clearly liberal-democratic stance. With limited success.
It does bother me that she's a bit careless around the edges. For instance, the now-defunct Kurz-Strache government did cut back monitoring and enforcement against far-right extremists, but they didn't entirely shut it down, as she says. In her description of the scandal video, she says that Gudenus speaks Russian at least at an elementary level. I don't speak any Russian, but I've never heard Gudenus' Russian described as elementary-level before. Gudenus is the FPÖ's main official Russian contact, and he lived and studied in Russia for a while. (See: Leila Al-Serori et al, Wie die FPÖ Russland lieben lernte Süddeutsche Zeitung 20.05.2019)
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