On the one hand, the supreme judges determined that the documents requested were not covered by the subject of the investigation, on the other hand, the People’s Party made a mistake in the date of one of its requests to the Constitutional Court and apparently mixed up the months. The ÖVP was upset.
The background is that the ÖVP parliamentary group in the U-Committee wanted to find out that it was illegal for the Ministry of Justice to immediately evaluate and submit chats between the former Secretary General in the Ministry of Finance Thomas Schmid and people with a close relationship to the SPÖ or FPÖ be. However, the Court found that there was no legal basis for such a finding.
Incorrect date specification
The MEPs’ second request referred to two “requests from February 26, 2022”, which, however, do not exist. The Minister of Justice was first asked on January 26 to evaluate and present such chats. According to its own statements, the VfGH is forbidden to interpret this application by correcting the date. The incorrect date means that the subject matter of the proceedings before the Constitutional Court is too vague and this application is therefore also to be rejected.
Other applications were also dealt with in terms of content and subsequently rejected. VP parliamentary group leader Andreas Hanger and colleagues had requested that certain documents on the filling of management positions with former cabinet employees as well as files and documents relating to the award of certain orders in federal ministries not attributable to the ÖVP should be submitted to the sub-committee. The committee had rejected the majority.
A blanket statement is not sufficient
The VfGH came close. A connection between the required documents and the subject matter of the U-Committee is not obvious; the deputies should therefore have given more detailed reasons for their request. The sweeping assertion that people associated with the ÖVP could have been favored in departments not managed by the ÖVP is not enough.
In its previous findings, the Constitutional Court had always stated that all files and documents that could be abstractly relevant for the committee of inquiry had to be presented to the parliamentary committee of inquiry, Hanger reacted in surprise. With today’s decision, the Court of Justice is fundamentally deviating from that line.
“You have to lose 70-0 first”
With regard to the SPÖ chats, Hanger stated that the ÖVP would continue to push for them to be sent to the U-Committee. “At the first meeting in September, we will submit a new application for setting a deadline and request Justice Minister Zadic to make these important documents available. We continue to see absolute relevance to the subject of the investigation.” The ÖVP parliamentary group leader said: “It’s amazing that the correct date is set 20 times in the application and the rejection is due to just one typo.”
SP parliamentary group leader Jan Krainer, on the other hand, sees himself confirmed: “You have to lose 70-0 first.” 68 of the ÖVP applications were rejected in terms of content and two formally.
Source: Nachrichten
