On 17 May 2019, at precisely 6pm, the German weekly Der Spiegel and the German broadsheet Die Süddeutsche Zeitung as well as the Austrian weekly Der Falter published a seven-minute video showing the then leader of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) and Vice-Chancellor, Hans Christian (HC) Strache, and his chief whip, Johann Gudenus, in a Ibiza villa, drinking Vodka mixed with Red Bull, using drugs (cocaine), and talking with an unknown niece of a Russian oligarch; the young wife of Gudenus was also present. The Russian niece was interested in investing her money (over a quarter billion euros) in Austria.
Smoking gun
These seven minutes, we are told, were cut together from a seven-hour meeting held in the spring of 2017. The contents of this video, however, were so scandalous that Strache was forced to resign as leader of the FPÖ the very next morning (11 am, 18 May 2019).
In a nutshell, the contents of this montage illustrated that Strache was prepared to literally sell out Austria: to privatize the water services, to cut press freedom (and thus to “Orbanize” Austrian media), and to allow the “Russian niece” to take over the biggest and most influential tabloid, the Neue Kronenzeitung: “If she takes over the Krone newspaper three weeks before election and brings us to spot No. 1, then we can talk about anything,” Strache suggests.
