Sebastian Kurz is forced out of the Austrian chancellery—again

HE MAY ONLYöVPöVP be 35, but Sebastian Kurz has been involved in enough political intrigue for several lifetimes. On October 9th Mr Kurz was toppled as Austria’s chancellor for the second time in three years, amid claims that he had masterminded a conspiracy to buy himself favourable media coverage. In America Mr Kurz would barely be old enough to run for president. But his career at the top of Austrian politics may already be approaching its end.Mr Kurz and nine others stand accused of an elaborate plot to upend the leadership of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (), and ultimately of the country. Prosecutors allege that, starting in 2016, the finance ministry siphoned taxpayers’ money to fund bogus opinion polls, published in a compliant newspaper, to help Mr Kurz unseat Reinhold Mitterlehner, then head of the , and take his job. Fake invoices are said to have disguised the ploy. The evidence is in a stash of 300,000 text messages discovered on the phone of Thomas Schmid, a supporter of Mr Kurz who was working at the finance ministry. They show Mr Kurz egging on Mr Schmid; at one point he describes Mr Mitterlehner as an “arse”. (On October 12th a pollster was arrested in connection with the case. Mr Kurz protests his own innocence.)