Political turmoil in Austria
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 June 2019
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Austria has sworn in its first female chancellor but Brigitte Bierlein is unlikely to be there for long. She heads a caretaker government appointed because the previous Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz lost a confidence vote after his far- right coalition partner was caught in a video sting scandal. Bethany Bell reports from Vienna on the current political turmoil. As fighting continues in Syria's Idlib province, author Diana Darke who knows Syria well, has been to the Korean Peninsular and discovers how close the ties are between President Bashar al_Assad and North Korea's Kim Jong-un . Chris Haslam meets the Nicaraguan university rector with a price on his head - but it's not enough for his would-be assassin. Sarah Raynsford sees both sides of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan when the football fans were in town. And in Ireland thousands of visitors flock to towns and villages every summer as the music festival season gets underway. Kieran Cooke goes along too and reflects on how the country has held onto its traditions of music and dance.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:05.5 | Hello, today Strange Bedfellows, just what kind of close relationship exists between |
| 0:11.5 | Syria and North Korea. |
| 0:14.0 | Nicaragua is stamping out dissent and a university rector has a price on his head, |
| 0:19.0 | but according to his would-be assassin, it's not enough. You love football and would follow your team |
| 0:26.4 | anywhere so what impressions were gained when die-hard British fans ended up in Azerbaijan and time for flower, the singing and dancing season in Ireland. |
| 0:37.0 | Austria now has a caretaker government with the country's most senior judge Brigitte |
| 0:44.0 | Bierline as its first female Chancellor, unlikely to be there long as the country's |
| 0:49.0 | politics have recently been in turmoil. The Vice Chancellor, Heinz Christian Strache of the Far Right Freedom |
| 0:55.9 | Party, resigned after he was filmed apparently offering government contracts in return for |
| 1:01.8 | political and financial support. That sparked a chain of events which led to the |
| 1:06.4 | collapse of the coalition between the Freedom Party and the Conservatives. |
| 1:10.8 | They're led by the former Chancellor Sebastian Kurtz, described as looking like a rock star, and only |
| 1:18.6 | 32 so likely to be around for some time. |
| 1:22.3 | Bethany Bell in Vienna has been trying to assess what happens next. |
| 1:27.0 | A couple of years ago I attended a campaign rally for Sebastian Kutz. |
| 1:32.0 | As he entered to a blast of music, a girl with blonde plaits nudged her |
| 1:36.7 | companion who was wearing Laderhausen. Look, she said, there he is. The Wunderwuzzi. Wunderwuzzi very roughly translates as whiz kid or boy wonder. |
| 1:48.7 | Just 31 years old at the time, Mr. Kirt's shot to the top at the general elections in 2017 becoming |
| 1:56.4 | Austria's youngest ever Chancellor and for a while the world's youngest |
| 2:01.0 | head of government. |
| 2:03.0 | Tall, slim and very slick, he managed to reinvigorate his rather tired Conservative People's |
... |
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