The Austrian parliament on Thursday night lifted the immunity of former conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who resigned in October after his name was implicated in a corruption scandal.
Kurtz, 35, was the target of an investigation but despite his resignation as chancellor, he was not prosecuted for his immunity as a member of parliament and leader of the ομάδαςVP Conservative People’s Party parliamentary group.
Kurtz himself had said he wanted his parliamentary immunity lifted so that the investigation could proceed and that he wanted to drop the allegations – which he said were wrong – that cost him the chancellor.
The scandal erupted in October, when the chancellor and the Ministry of Finance were investigated, in the context of the investigation of a case of misuse of public funds, between 2016-2018, by associates of the former chancellor. The aim was to fund fabricated polls and to promote Kurtz positively in the media of the powerful Austrian group Österreich.
Kurtz was the youngest head of government in the world when he was elected, at the age of 31. The coalition he formed with the far right collapsed in 2019, when his allies were at the center of a corruption scandal. After the new elections, he allied with the Greens and remained chancellor.
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