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Who was Sebastian Kurz with? In “Inside Türkis”, “Krone” journalist Klaus Knittelfelder approaches the political circle of power around the Chancellor. And it refutes an extensive thesis on the turquoises.
If you haven’t made video calls to your closest social contacts several times a day, you could have seen a man more often than your own friends and family in the past few weeks: Sebastian Kurz. The government has held 73 press conferences since the end of February. For many, the chancellor was also there. Sometimes with mouth protection, sometimes without, sometimes with good news and sometimes with bad news. But always with a clear message and with his confidants nearby. Many can really capture the personality, less the political people. Despite a permanent presence and some attempts at explanation.
So he is a little relieved when he reads the first pages of the book “Inside Türkis”. After all, there are (authorized) biographies of Sebastian Kurz; Kurz himself has often told the story of his life. So “Krone” author and journalist Klaus Knittelfelder tries to approach Kurz in a different way: through his closest but not publicly known employees who shape him and his politics.
This creates a more or less homogeneous image of the turquoise troop. The people whom Kurz trusts and with whom he discusses the most important decisions are mainly men. They are young, invariably loyal and professional, often socialized in the ÖVP of Lower Austria, often Catholic. They are often multiple parents and live an “extraordinarily traditional family life.” And they form a clear constellation in the turquoise solar system that revolves around brevity: Stefan Steiner as chief strategist, Gerald Fleischmann as the chief spinning physician, Philipp Maderthaner as campaign guru, for example. “I always want to have people around me who can do whatever I admire them for,” says Kurz.
Are there no ideologues? Not at all
A thesis that is often made about Kurz and his network is refuted in the book: that the Chancellor and his team are very pragmatic and not very ideological. This is made clearer in the chapter on Bernhard Bonelli. The chief of staff is one of the most important initiators. But: “In most cases, their approaches have a problem: they are not capable of a majority in society.” In hindsight, you should disable some of their suggestions. It also played an important role during the crown crisis: when the Greens were strictly against curfew, the turquoise around Bonelli trusted his communication strategy: and he communicated the rules more strictly than they were.
Most of those in Kurz’s circle of power have accompanied him from the start. Not always a volunteer, press spokesman Gerald Fleischmann had to be forced to do so by former President Michael Spindelegger. Together they prepared for the acquisition and recorded their plans in one document: the Ballhausplatz project. Now they are also sitting there, with Sebastian Kurz. (ib)
Klaus Knittelfelder
Turquoise interior
edition to
224 pages
€ 22
(“Die Presse”, print edition, May 9, 2020)
