Every party that was in government with the ÖVP during the period under investigation was included in the subject of the investigation, it was said at a press conference on Monday. The coalition partner Green sees things differently.
The subject of the investigation is “the granting of benefits to natural and legal persons associated with the ÖVP by federal bodies in the period from December 18, 2017 to October 11, 2021 (…)”. It should be clarified “whether, based on the ‘Ballhausplatz project’, a group of people working in federal organs and assigned to the ÖVP abused organ powers for the purpose of promoting the party-political interests of the ÖVP, and whether this may have caused damage to state interests “.
Group leader Andreas Hanger, together with his colleague Christian Stocker, referred unimpressed to the legal view of the ÖVP: A political party could not be the subject of investigation, and if one wanted to look at an overall system of alleged advantages granted by federal organs, the respective government partners would also have to be examined.
Video: Andreas Hanger’s statement
Hanger therefore preferred to speak of a “transparency committee of inquiry”, and the ÖVP also stands for full transparency and clarification. Unsurprisingly, Hanger first thought of the FPÖ (but also the NEOS and the ex-MP Peter Pilz) and their connections to the ex-constitutional protection officer Egisto Ott. With Ott’s disciplinary act, the FPÖ gave you a penalty. There are indications of payment flows from the Freedom Party to this “secret service clique”, Herbert Kickl was already responsible for the FPÖ club at the time. Allegations of breach of official secrecy and abuse of office are in the room. Hanger also mentioned the cause of the former Secretary General in the Foreign Ministry, Johannes Peterlik.
And the faction leader also managed to bring the SPÖ into play. With the interrogation protocol of the opinion researcher Sabine Beinschab, who was temporarily arrested in the advertising corruption affair surrounding the ÖVP and ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, there is an allegation that election polls had been manipulated by the SPÖ. Wolfgang Jansky was the managing director of the newspaper “heute” at the time, and it was “unrealistic” that the second president of the National Council, Doris Bures (SPÖ), as Jansky’s partner, would not have known anything about this survey manipulation.
However, Hanger has no problem with the First President of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP), as the U-Committee Chairman. He did not want to comment on his heavily criticized statements on the parliamentary shutdown in 1933 or the comparison of the current Russian attack with the situation in Austria in 1945. In general, Hanger called for calm and composure and recalled the spiral of escalation around Ukraine. “We in domestic politics should also think carefully about the tonality and choice of words with which we approach this committee of inquiry.”
Video: The questions of the media representatives
The Green MP Nina Tomaselli, who represents her group in the U-Committee with David Stögmüller, saw it completely differently. “At the latest since the events of October last year, most Austrians have realized that a small circle of power, mainly young men, has deceived the whole country,” she explained in a broadcast: “How did they do it? They manipulated operated. And they took care of special treatments for the super-rich. But the big deception has been blown. Now it’s about recognizing loopholes in the system, sealing them and winning back trust”. The Greens stand for enlightenment. She distanced herself from those “who sometimes want to play hobby sheriffs with a gun.”
NEOS MP Helmut Brandstätter reacted emotionally to Hanger and his allegations regarding connections between BVT employees and parliamentarians. In a tweet, he called him a “stupid and clumsy liar” and a “lousy slanderer.”
Source: Nachrichten
