"Global strategist for California-based Thiel Capital" is probably an upward move from many perspectives.
Soon filling the pipeline with good strategic Russian deals.
The only perspective from which that seems like an upward move is financially. Going from being an elected head of state to basically becoming a revolving door lobbyist for some company I think looks mostly embarrassing in particular to his fellow Austrian citizens, in particular given his conservative nationalist positions.
I have to imagine there are many parts of being an elected head of state that aren't rewarding, and I don't mean financially.
Well if politics is not gonna welcome him back, he has to work with the hand he is dealt with. One thing with politicians is that they are not easily embarrassed. If some other people are embarrassed then it is their problem.
He's gonna be fine. Give it 10 years, and he might try to come back. After all, Berlusconi has had a kind of comeback into politics too, and that guy got much closer to actual jail (only avoided it because of his advanced age). Compared to Berlusconi, Kurz will be around forever.
Well he's just been hired as global strategist for California-based Thiel Capital, so the future looks fantastic for him.
"Rich and proudly unpopular" is a whole thing in today's political scene.
Yep, a lot of people who don't like criticisms of capitalism fail to understand that this system is disguised as a meritocracy but in reality it's a game and you win it by shaking off any moral scruples and stepping on everyone else.
Berlusconi (almost) came back from worse (procuring and organising prostitution, including underage, alongside corruption), and many countries have shown that even blatantly corrupt people are no longer unelectable, so there's nothing to say he won't come back to Austrian politics.