The SPÖ is de facto demanding the dismissal of Court of Auditors President Margit Kraker, because they wanted to advertise the function again immediately when the new regulation came into force, criticized the ÖVP and the Greens towards the APA. This condition was firmly rejected during the negotiations on Thursday. The SPÖ confirmed the demand that they wanted to continue negotiations.
Further negotiations with the SPÖ
The amendment to the party law and other new regulations are to be decided next week in the National Council. Some points require a two-thirds majority (and thus the approval of the SPÖ and/or FPÖ), including the new appointment procedure for the RH President, which is enshrined in the constitution, and the Court of Auditors’ extended right to inspect party finances. The ÖVP and the Greens therefore negotiated with the Social Democrats on Thursday, the Freedom Party had canceled.
ÖVP chief negotiator Andreas Ottenschläger was irritated by the SPÖ. Many of the demands of the opposition as well as those from the expert opinions were taken up, and the initiative motion of the government factions had already been revised. “Our goal is to create the fairest possible competition between the parties,” he explained. It is about transparency and the exclusion of bypasses. “However, it is completely incomprehensible to me why the SPÖ is now insisting on a proposal that will lead to the incumbent President of the Court of Auditors being removed. That is not expedient. We still want to keep in touch with the constructive forces of the opposition and hope continue to reach an agreement with the broadest possible consensus.”
Green club chairwoman Sigrid Maurer also expressed rejection. “The condition of the SPÖ, the current President of the Audit Office Margit Kraker De facto deducting is unacceptable for me, and we will not comply with it under any circumstances,” she emphasized: “I appreciate Margit Kraker as an incorruptible, independent and conscientious President of the Republic’s supreme supervisory body, she has been elected for twelve years and should, of course, continue her important work.” Nevertheless, she held out the prospect of trying to find a good solution up to the plenary session and, above all, emphasized the contributions of the NEOS positively.
The SPÖ club tried to downplay the matter. “It has legal technical and democratic-political logic that with an expansion of competences the degree of legitimacy for the head of the Court of Auditors is also increased,” it said in a statement to the APA: “This is by no means distrust of the incumbent president, but conclusive in terms of democracy and legal policy. We will continue to negotiate these and other points of the package on party transparency.”
Leichtfried: “Kraker is completely beyond dispute”
SPÖ vice club boss Jörg Leichtfried also weighed himself down personally. “Margit Kraker is completely beyond dispute. However, there is a logic of democratic and legal policy in that the degree of legitimacy for the head of the Court of Auditors is also increased when competences are expanded. The result would be a strengthened President Kraker and a strengthened Court of Auditors,” he said.
The NEOS did not accept this. The SPÖ boycotted “with an almost unbelievable volte” in the last few meters of a new, proper party law. “The demand made by the SPÖ today in the negotiations for the President of the Court of Auditors to be voted out of office is completely otherworldly,” said NEOS Club Vice Niki Scherak in a broadcast: “The SPÖ cannot show more clearly that they shy away from transparency and transparent party coffers like the devil Holy water.” Kraker and the RH stand for clear control work and transparency: “The SPÖ is obviously against it.” The spokesman for the Greens’ Court of Auditors was also stunned and attested to the SPÖ’s “transparent chutzpah”.
Source: Nachrichten
