His first appearance in the Ibiza Committee of Inquiry on June 24, 2020 brought Sebastian Kurz (VP) the most delicate phase as Federal Chancellor to date. Because he had denied as a witness that he was actively involved in the appointment of Thomas Schmid as ÖBAG boss and that chats that appeared later offered a completely different picture, the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA) is investigating the Chancellor for false statements.
Place without respect
Yesterday’s second appearance by the turquoise head of government therefore seemed like an act of revenge. If there is a place “where one does not treat each other with respect, then that is the U-Committee,” the Chancellor, arriving 20 minutes late, told the opposition MPs who were waiting inside. He would therefore like a reform, according to which there should be “interviews by professionals”, for example by judges, in committees of inquiry.
Inside, Kurz once again lamented “the sheer hatred” and the “low point” in Austrian parliamentarism in his opening statement. Then it was procedural judge Wolfgang Pöschl’s turn: At the end of 2017, the private hospital operator Premiqamed transferred a 25,000 euro donation to the ÖVP and the same amount again in June 2018. In the meantime, the Private Hospitals Act was changed in favor of the donor. He understands “that you can question that,” said Kurz. But he could “not imagine with the best will” that there was something in return.
Later, the Chancellor replied to the question of the VP-MP Klaus Fürlinger, who wanted to know whether he could imagine “anyone for sale” in the ÖVP: It would be “completely absurd” to “throw away your life” for a donation to the party . He’s got to be a solid fool. “
Fürlinger’s practice as the first questioner showed that the ÖVP did not want to miss anything in its defensive work this time. Numerous briefly worded questions (each group has a total of six minutes in the first round, note) gave the party leader room for sweeping general explanations. Kurz gave a lecture on the “actually important projects”, while the U-Committee only deals with “secondary scenes in government work”. Or how good it is when you are not involved in all positions. Because: “As Federal Chancellor you are happy when you don’t have to decide everything.” Because the committee chairman Wolfgang Sobotka (VP) did not intervene despite questions that sometimes diverged from the subject of the examination, after Fürlinger’s work for Kurz, almost two hours and thus almost half of the maximum permissible question time were already over.
Briefly in the audio log
SP parliamentary group leader Jan Krainer then presented the audio protocol in which the Chancellor describes his non-involvement in the appointment of the ÖBAG boss when he appeared for the first time. “Was that where you were pressured?” – The Chancellor was spared the answer to this question as inadmissible.
There was also excitement about those chats in which Schmid (still in the Ministry of Finance) is said to have been encouraged by Kurz to give the Catholic Church “full throttle” because of its tax privileges. A complaint brought against him yesterday for “coercion and extortion” was called “absurd” by Kurz. In the matter he made a decision.
