Poll: 83 Per cent of Austrians Believe All Politicans are Corrupt

The Austrian Parliament building is a Greek revival style building, constructed from 1874
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Chris Tomlinson

A poll has suggested as many as 83 per cent of Austrians believe that all of the country’s politicians are corrupt as the various scandals mount for the ruling Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP).

Pollster Christoph Haselmayer of the Institute for Demoscopy and Data Analysis (IFDD) stated that an overwhelming majority of Austrian believe all of the country’s politicians are corrupt saying that the attitude may help the ruling ÖVP, which is currently mired in several scandals.

Haselmayer added that just a third of Austrians believed that Austrian politicians were more corrupt than politicians from other European Union member states, however, the tabloid Kronen Zeitung reports.

The data comes as the centre-right ÖVP and their coalition government with the Greens face a crisis following a multi-year probe into corruption linked to former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

Much of the probe revolves around Thomas Schmid, a close confidant of the former Chancellor, who has become a witness for corruption allegations levelled at dozens of officials.

Phone messages leaked from Schmid for a probe by the state economic crime and corruption prosecutor (WKStA) even led to the resignation of Kurz as Chancellor last year in October.

As a result of the ongoing corruption allegations, the ÖVP has lost nearly half of their prior support with a survey by the IFDD putting the party in third place nationally, behind the Social Democrats and the populist Freedom Party.

The current leader of the ÖVP, Chancellor Karl Nehammer, has attempted to distance himself from the corruption allegations, but according to an August report from Politico, Nehammer became the least popular head of government in the world.

The news outlet claimed that the party was not just facing a crisis at the top but possibly an existential crisis and the party saw an almost ten per cent decrease in votes in the Tyrol regional election in September, but still managed to win the election with 34.7 per cent of the vote.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.

 

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