Unsurprisingly, putting a 23 year old as your lead candidate for the EU elections
has not gone well for Austria's Green Party:
"The “Schilling affair,” as Austrian newspapers have dubbed it, began in early May when local media published a series of reports casting doubt on the former activist’s suitability for the role. Although tabloids happily jumped on the story, much of the reporting was led by Der Standard, a sober broadsheet.
In its article kicking off the media storm, Der Standard portrayed Schilling as having “a problematic relationship with the truth,” with multiple anonymous sources accusing her of spreading damaging rumors about friends, allies and journalists.
The report’s key piece of evidence: A cease-and-desist order, signed by Schilling, that stated the politician faced a €20,000 fine if she repeated false claims that a former friend’s husband had been violent to the point of causing his wife to have a miscarriage.
Schilling says she had simply been concerned for her friend, and shared her worries with her close circle. “That was passed on … I apologized. I wanted to clarify that this should never [have] become public, so I agreed to sign a settlement,” which “was leaked by other people.”
Last week, Der Standard published another bombshell: Based on text messages and an affidavit, the newspaper reported that Schilling had allegedly discussed ditching the Greens after getting elected to the European Parliament to join the far-left faction instead. "
...
"What followed was a crisis communications disaster of epic proportions. The Greens — who currently govern Austria in an uneasy coalition with the conservatives — initially dismissed the reports, prompting an outcry.
Green Vice Chancellor Walter Kogler denounced the allegations as “anonymous grumbles and farts.” He later apologized for the crude expression."
...
"After the second set of leaked chats that cast doubt on her Greens loyalty, the party switched to counterattack mode. The allegations, senior party members suggested, were part of a sinister conspiracy against Schilling, spread by other left-wing politicians.
In a press conference widely described as a PR debacle, Greens Secretary-General Olga Voglauer used a term seen as having antisemitic connotations while implying that the Social Democrats were involved in spreading the allegations. Voglauer was forced to apologize, but her comment had already sent the Greens’ campaign spiraling."
