Comment: This is undoubtedly connected with the recent revelations from a two-year-old 'sting operation' that knocked out the Freedom Party (FPÖ) in Austria, and toppled its coalition government in the process...


Decision comes after Christchurch shooter was found to have donated money to the Austrian far right
kickl strache kurz
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz wants Austria's intelligence services to report directly to him amid concerns over the far right's influence in the country, local media reported Tuesday.

The move would deprive the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), Kurz's coalition partner in government, of its exclusive oversight of the country's spy agencies.

Until now, Austria's interior and defense ministries, both headed by the FPÖ, preside over the country's various intelligence services.

The two ministries will continue to receive information from the agencies, however. FPÖ leader and Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache will also be looped in.

Strache indicated he did not oppose the change in principle, but warned that the matter is "sensitive" and should not be rushed.

The change was technically part of the coalition program - added after the Austrian president expressed concern over putting the far right in charge of the defense and interior ministries - but had until now not been put into practice.

Local media, citing a chancellory spokesman, reported that Kurz's decision was a reaction to the discovery that the man charged with killing 50 people at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, had donated money to Austria's far-right Identitarian Movement.


Comment: That's the first clue to there being a foreign, 'internationalist' hand behind this intrigue in Vienna. Christchurch maniac Brenton Tarrant was sheep-dipped everywhere over the last few years, apparently for the purpose of blackening anyone remotely 'conservative' - from Candace Owens in the US, to Felix Kjellberg in Sweden, to the FPÖ in Austria...

Anyway, 'the Identitarian Movement in Austria' (specifically, the Identitäre Bewegung Österreich) is just an informal branch of an overall movement that actually begun in France, inspired by nouvelle droite philosophers like Alain de Benoist.

Is it fascist? That depends on your definition of the term, but it certainly isn't running around killing people - nor is it threatening to do so - as recently confirmed by the fact that an Austrian government investigation in April 2018 saw police raid the homes of its leaders on the basis that they were suspected of belonging to a criminal organization, the result of which was that an Austrian court ruled that the IBÖ was not a criminal organization.

So Kurz and the shadowy 'Club de Berne' (which graciously informed him that Tarrant has visited Austria and donated some cash to the IBÖ) knew that when they suddenly gave the FPÖ this ultimatum to sever links with the IBÖ weeks before it was targeted via 'Ibizagate'.

It came out of left-field, and was ostensibly justified on the basis that Ozzie Brenton Tarrant has just murdered a bunch of Muslims in New Zealand. Oh, and he had two years previously visited Austria and given money to an organization loosely connected with the FPÖ. So there; 'do what we say, or else'...

Evidently, the FPÖ's answer to this was insufficient because it was out of government within 5 weeks...


Kurz has called on his coalition partner to cut any connections between the party and the Identitarians, referring to recent newspaper reports that the Identitarians had rented space in an FPÖ-linked dormitory.

"Any sort of entanglement with the Identitarians ought to be dissolved," Kurz said Monday in comments aimed at the FPÖ. "Looking away is not an option."

Also Monday, Peter Gridling, the chief of Austria's domestic spy agency BVT, said that Vienna has been isolated in the Club de Berne, a forum in which European intelligence chiefs share information.


Comment: That's spook-speak for 'a deep state paralegal network that operates behind the scenes and above the law'...


The BVT withdrew voluntarily from the club's working groups in spring 2018, in part due to concerns over a raid on the agency - ordered by FPÖ Interior Minister Herbert Kickl - in which police confiscated secret information, including details on investigations into far-right extremists.


Comment: We cannot find information on what 'far-right extremists' the Austrian domestic intel agency was keeping tabs on, but we presume it included FPÖ members, who, of course, as ministerial overseers of this agency, would have wanted to know what it was up to! DUH!

But no. This has been spun - in the limited press coverage it has received in the anglsophere - as 'gross overreach on the part of the FPÖ, necessitating/justifying its removal from office'...


A planned return to full participation did not take place after the newspaper Falter in late 2018 published an internal club paper, Gridling said, according to Austrian media.

In the paper, the Finnish intelligence service asked all its Club de Berne allies - except Austria - for help in investigating Russian spies.

The FPÖ has close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, having gone as far as to sign a "cooperation pact" with Putin's party in 2016.


Comment: ...yes, it signed pacts with other European and international parties, AS EVERY PARTY IN EUROPE DOES AS A MATTER OF ROUTINE.

'Pact', however, in relation to president Putin, has a very different meaning, according to our Secret Dear Leaders: it means... PACT WITH THE DEVIL!

Note that this is the first mention of Austrian relations with Russia in this report, and yet it is probably central to the motive for targeting the FPÖ.


Falter's report has been "negative" for Austria's return to full participation, Gridling said, speaking at a court hearing. (Kickl sued an opposition figure for describing him as a security risk following the raid.)

Gridling added that Austria is still a member of the Club de Berne and has not been excluded from receiving intelligence, but that club members could decide "to what extent to cooperate with other members."