The new FPÖ boss Herbert Kickl called for the continuation of the Ibiza-U-Committee on Tuesday. As an “interesting aspect” he wants to shed light on the Wirecard scandal and possible connections to the ÖVP, as he said at his first press conference as the chosen FPÖ chairman.
ÖVP finance minister Gernot Blümel, who is being questioned for the third time in the U committee this week, affirmed that he had delivered all files to parliament. Yesterday, on Monday, Blümel applied to the Constitutional Court to suspend the delivery of files and invited Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen to make sure that the files were delivered, the minister said at a press conference on Tuesday. He has also commissioned several legal reports in which labor law issues in connection with the delivery of files to the U-Committee are to be clarified.
He firmly rejected the opposition’s accusation that the Ministry of Finance had still not delivered all the necessary documents. With this accusation the opposition would indirectly accuse the officials of his house of abuse of office. Over 37,000 emails and electronic documents were sent to the U-Committee, said Blümel.
The decision about which emails are private and which ones have to be delivered to the U-Committee is made by the employees themselves, because as an employer he cannot penetrate their mailboxes. The managers of the department have confirmed with their signature that all relevant documents have been transmitted. “When the opposition claims that the delivery was not complete, they accuse the staff of not telling the truth.” As a politician, he had to endure such accusations, but not the officials. He therefore resolutely opposes these allegations. This shows once again that “some are only concerned with scandalization and prejudice.” Once this topic is settled, he expects an apology to the employees, said Blümel.
Dispute over deliveries of the files
There has been a dispute between Blümel and the opposition over the delivery of documents from the Ministry of Finance for weeks. The minister had initially withheld many files. That ended with the Constitutional Court submitting an enforcement motion to the Federal President, which ultimately persuaded the Finance Minister to give in. Blümel emphasized again today that he made mistakes and to apologize for them. In the meantime everything has been delivered, stressed the minister. The opposition still doesn’t believe that.
In the opinion of the new FPÖ boss Kickl, the U Committee has so far uncovered a lot: “We are no longer talking about ‘acidic meadows’ that have to be drained, but about cesspools that have to be pumped out.” Kickl reported that he had spoken to a colleague of the German AfD who is active in the German Wirecard committee – and from this conversation it emerged that there are “interesting connections to Austria” on this topic – and that “not just anywhere, but.” to the Federal Chancellery “.
Kickl also recalled the “fact that (Wirecard founder, note) Markus Braun was a major donor to the ÖVP” and was also in the think tank of the Chancellery. The U-Committee was “probably the most successful U-Committee of the Second Republic,” said Kickl. It is interesting that this succeeded despite “all attempts by the ÖVP to smash the committee”. Today the population would think more of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) and ex-ÖBAG boss Thomas Schmid when hearing the keyword “Ibiza” – and less of the proponents of the Ibiza video, according to Kickl. “The U-Committee was initiated as a place of execution for the FPÖ, but it became an excavation of the ‘deep state’.”
