"Ibizagate": Capturing a Political Field in Flux. (May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Karner, Christian
• Is Part Of: Austrian history yearbook. Volume 52(2021)
• Page Start: 253
• Page End: 269
• Publication Date: 2021-05
• Subjects: Austria, -- FPÖ, -- Ibizagate, -- nationalism, -- Michel Foucault, -- political crisis; Austria -- History -- Periodicals; 943.6
• DOI: 10.1017/S0067237820000557
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0067-2378

Abstract

Abstract: The "Ibiza affair, " a succession of scandals triggered by undercover recordings of the FPÖ's former head, Heinz-Christian Strache, in compromising discussions with a purported Russian oligarch's niece has profoundly altered Austria's political landscape and public debates. This article offers a historically contextualized analysis of the multiple voices and competing truth claims articulated by diverse actors in the course of the scandal's fallout. Empirically, this discussion offers a systematic analysis of political and media discourses focused on "Ibiza" between May 2019 and June 2020. Conceptually, the argument builds on Michel Foucault's approach outlined in I, Pierre Rivière and its subsequent applications within nationalism studies. This analysis thus examines data through the questions as to who speaks about the event in question, how they do so, what is being claimed and disputed, and which political strategies and trajectories this enables. The competing, partly shifting positions revealed are the following: Strache's initial regret that soon turned to a self-ascribed "victim-cum-martyr" status; the FPÖ's distancing and eventual rupture from its long-standing Bundesparteiobmann ; the Kronen Zeitung 's attempted ideological repositioning; the ÖVP's need and opportunity to shift its positions vis-à-vis its political competitors; and critical voices calling for far-reaching structural changes. With the full facts behind the scandal still to be established, the (post-Foucauldian) approach applied here captures the contestations, (new) fault lines, and (shifting) political boundaries constitutive of a discursive field in a crisis context.