The "Ibiza-Scandal". How a Published Video of Austria's Vize President Unsettled Trust in the Fundamental Values of the European Union

Abstract or Introduction

This essay aims at the reconstruction of the so-called "Ibiza-Scandal", concerning two members of the FPÖ (Austrian Freedom Party), Heinz-Christian Strache, vice chancellor of Austria, and Johann Gudenus, member of the National Council of Austria, who were promising illegal and unethical deals to a pretended niece of a Russian oligarch to gather a basic understanding of what impact such an incident might have on EU citizens, especially taking into regard the trust in politicians.

The fundamental basis on which the European Union was set up on 7th February 1992 with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty was laid down in goals and values shared between the member states. The value concerned in this case is democracy, which is defined as follows: "The functioning of the EU is founded on representative democracy. Being a European citizen also means enjoying political rights. Every adult EU citizen has the right to stand as a candidate and to vote in elections to the European Parliament. EU citizens have the right to stand as candidate and to vote in their country of residence, or in their country of origin" (European Union, 2019). Nevertheless, the importance of voting especially in elections concerning the European Parliament seemed to decrease over the last years. While that may be linked to several individual factors that will not be elaborated in this essay, also scandals from politicians, showing them taking unethical decisions and kind of betraying their voters, do influence the interest in voting of EU citizens in a negative way.

Therefore, when the "Ibiza- scandal" was brought to light, it caused a huge wave of indignation not only nationally across Austria but also Europe-wide. The Austrian government reacted quickly by taking several measures such as releasing vice chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache and exclaiming re- elections taking place in September 2019. In order to get back the trust of voters and to ensure a framework that restricts political parties from taking unethical actions on the long run, stricter transparency regulations on both EU and national level are necessary while running campaigns to convince European citizens that their vote is heard and the majority of politicians does act on behalf of their interests.