Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Austria’s Kurz plans to strip far right of spy agency oversight Decision comes after Christchurch shooter was found to have donated money to the Austrian far right.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz wants Austria's intelligence services to report directly to him amid concerns over the far right’s influence in the country, local media reported Tuesday.

The move would deprive the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), Kurz’s coalition partner in government, of its exclusive oversight of the country’s spy agencies.

Until now, Austria’s interior and defense ministries, both headed by the FPÖ, preside over the country’s various intelligence services.

The two ministries will continue to receive information from the agencies, however. FPÖ leader and Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache will also be looped in.

Strache indicated he did not oppose the change in principle, but warned that the matter is “sensitive” and should not be rushed.

Kurz has called on his coalition partner to cut any connections between the party and the Identitarians.

The change was technically part of the coalition program — added after the Austrian president expressed concern over putting the far right in charge of the defense and interior ministries — but had until now not been put into practice.

Local media, citing a chancellory spokesman, reported that Kurz’s decision was a reaction to the discovery that the man charged with killing 50 people at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand had donated money to Austria’s far-right Identitarian Movement.

Kurz has called on his coalition partner to cut any connections between the party and the Identitarians, referring to recent newspaper reports that the Identitarians had rented space in an FPÖ-linked dormitory.

“Any sort of entanglement with the Identitarians ought to be dissolved,” Kurz said Monday in comments aimed at the FPÖ. “Looking away is not an option.”

The FPÖ has close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin

Also Monday, Peter Gridling, the chief of Austria’s domestic spy agency BVT, said that Vienna has been isolated in the Club de Berne, a forum in which European intelligence chiefs share information.

The BVT withdrew voluntarily from the club’s working groups in spring 2018, in part due to concerns over a raid on the agency — ordered by FPÖ Interior Minister Herbert Kickl — in which police confiscated secret information, including details on investigations into far-right extremists.

A planned return to full participation did not take place after the newspaper Falter in late 2018 published an internal club paper, Gridling said, according to Austrian media.

In the paper, the Finnish intelligence service asked all its Club de Berne allies — except Austria — for help in investigating Russian spies.

The FPÖ has close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, having gone as far as to sign a “cooperation pact” with Putin’s party in 2016.

Falter’s report has been “negative” for Austria’s return to full participation, Gridling said, speaking at a court hearing. (Kickl sued an opposition figure for describing him as a security risk following the raid.)

Gridling added that Austria is still a member of the Club de Berne and has not been excluded from receiving intelligence, but that club members could decide “to what extent to cooperate with other members.”

CORRECTION: This article has been amended to correct the first name of the Austrian vice chancellor.