Strache back in politics: district council or last chance?

Strache back in politics: district council or last chance?

Floridsdorf, Österreich - On June 11, 2025, Heinz-Christian Strache was officially praised as a district council in Floridsdorf. This was done in the Folkhochschule Floridsdorf, a symbolic place for Strache, which has played a central role in Austrian politics in the past as Vice Chancellor and FPÖ party leader. The FPÖ has lost influence in recent years and only won two district seats in Floridsdorf and Donaustadt in the last election. The party missed the move in the municipal council election and only received 1.1 % of the votes, while five years ago it had reached over 3 %, as the

Strache, whose political advancement abruptly interrupted the Ibiza affair in 2019, explained that he would no longer compete in an election. "With this result it was the last compete," he said in his commissioning. He explained his decision to accept the district council post with his responsibility towards his home district. The monthly salary of a district council is almost 600 euros, but SPÖ city councilor Jürgen Czernohorszky expressed that this salary was not enough to be able to live on it.

The Ibiza affair, also known as the Strache affair, led to the end of the government coalition between the ÖVP and the FPÖ in 2019. The trigger was the publication of a secretly recorded video, the Strache and the then Member of the National Council Johann Gudenus showed during a meeting with a supposed niece of a Russian oligarch. In this video they were ready to make potentially illegal agreements, which immediately led to national and international attention. On May 17, 2019, the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Spiegel Online published excerpts from the recordings that changed the political climate in Austria, according to the information from