Crisis Chronology

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AUSTRIA

06/05/2023

Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) corrects its result of leadership election after a misreading of computer results. The new leader is Andreas Babler, a small-town mayor.

02/02/2023

Austria expels four Russian diplomats.

10/09/2022

President Van der Bellen easily wins reelection as president.

06/14/2022

Government introduces packages of moves to combat inflation, including payments to residents, changes to the tax code to adjust for inflation, and extra payments to low-income people.

04/11/2022

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer meets Russian President Putin, the first European leader to meet him since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. It is not clear what he can accomplish. Putin says that negotiations are at a dead end, and Russia will accomplish what it set out to do.

12/04/2021

Large protests against stay-at-home restrictions.

12/02/2021

Prime minister resigns

Kurz resigns from his party and says he will step back from politics and says the party needs to elect a new leader. Schallenberg then also announces he will resign as soon the new party leader is elected.

11/15/2021

Government orders unvaccinated people to stay at home except for crucial trips outside due to COVID-19 delta variant surge.

11/12/2021

Austria considering renewed lockdown for people not vaccinated against COVID-19.

10/11/2021

Schallenberg sworn in as prime minister.

10/09/2021

Kurz resigns

Kurz resigns. He will, however, keep his position as leader of the Freedom Party and head of the conservative caucus. A new prime minister from the coalition will be elected, perhaps the foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg, Kurz’s choice.

10/06/2021

Police raid the headquarters of Chancellor Kurz in an investigation of embezzlement of public funds to bribe pollsters and prominent media figures for positive coverage. In a separate case, authorities are investigating Kurz for perjury to parliament. Kurz calls the investigation “manufactured” and his coalition partner, the Green party, says they will remain.

09/27/2021

Hungary signs natural gas deal with Russia, to be supplied through Serbia and Austria, which will deprive Ukraine of substantial income from transit payments.

08/27/2021

Former head of the Freedom Party Hans-Christian Strache is found guilty of accepting a bribe for the party in the so-called “Ibiza affair.”

11/15/2020

Government announces stay-at-home order due to outbreak of COVID-19.

10/17/2020

Austria reports its largest number of COVID-19 cases, its highest number in the pandemic.

04/14/2020

Austria begins to relax its COVID-19 restrictions, allowing some small retail shops, hardware stores and garden centers to reopen. Shopping malls and hairdressers will reopen 5/1. Restaurants will not reopen until mid-May and large events prohibited until June. Face masks will continue to be required.

02/25/2020

Austria confirms first case of COVID-19.

01/01/2020

Kurz forms new coalition

Kurz forms coalition with the Green Party to form a government after seven months. Details are not yet clear, and the two camps disagree on many fundamental policy issues. With both the Freedom Party and the Social Democrats seeing falling support, the unlikely coalition with the Greens was the best alternative for Kurz.

10/01/2019

Heinz-Christian Strache resigns as leader of the Freedom Party and retires from politics.

09/29/2019

Election in Austria. Kurz’s People’s Party wins with 37% of the vote, increasing their margin. The far-right Freedom Party loses badly, slipping to 16% and the center-left Social Democrats also lose, to about 22%. The Greens rise sharply to 14%.

05/28/2019

President van Bellen appoints a caretaker government to rule until new elections are held, probably in September.

05/27/2019

No-confidence vote passes, supported by both the left and the right

05/20/2019

All ministers who are Freedom Party members, about half the cabinet, quit over the forced resignation of Herbert Kickl, the interior minister.

05/19/2019

Kurz calls new elections after scandal

After a video of Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache seems to show him offering contracts to a Russian, Strache resigns his position and his position as head of the Freedom Party. Chancellor Kurz calls new elections to “rebuild trust” in the government.

02/28/2019

Police raid offices of the domestic intelligence services and remove files. The government had requested the names of those in the far right who were being monitored by the agency, but the agency had refused. Much of its work involved coordination with domestic security agencies of other countries. Since the raid, other countries have begun excluding Austria from shared information.

10/31/2018

Austria says it will withdraw from UN agreement on migration, to be adopted in 12/18. The United States and Hungary have already said they would not participate.

07/06/2018

Germany, Austria, and Italy agree to hold talks next week on how to shut down Mediterranean migration route from Africa.

07/02/2018

In a major concession to the CSU, Merkel agrees to create camps for migrants on the German border and to tighten the border with Austria. In Austria, Kurz says that the deal may force Austria to tighten border security with Slovenia and Italy.

07/02/2018

12/16/2017

Sebastian Kurz becomes chancellor

People’s Party’s Sebastian Kurz becomes Chancellor of Austria and Heinz-Christian Strache of the Freedom Party vice-chancellor. The cabinet is largely right-wing conservatives, though Kurz has given assurances there will be no vote on leaving the EU.

10/20/2017

Christian Kern, lead of the SPÖ, invites the ÖVP to coalition talks. Kern gained the lead negotiating position by offering to wokr with the FPÖ. The goal was to have a government in place by 12/15/17.

10/16/2017

The Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) wins 62 of 183 seats in the National Council. The Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) finished second with 52 seats and the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) third with 51. The Green Party is ejected from parliament, losing all of their 24 seats.

10/15/2017

Austrian parliamentary elections. Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz of center-right Austrian People’s Party vote leads in polls. Kurz has taken a hard line on immigration, provoking complaints from the Freedom Party that the OVP is trying to steal vote from it.