Thomas Schmid begins his statements with the fact that he has undergone a change in himself. “After leaving ÖBAG, I decided to take a new path and put an end to it. I started working through the whole thing. We did things that weren’t right,” says Schmid and goes straight to Kurz to charge. And he expresses – as reported – the desire for leniency.
According to Schmid, the rethinking was also due to the fact that he had the feeling that he was being used. After leaving ÖBAG and the house searches in October 2021, Kurz put him under pressure to “take all the blame on me” and to exonerate him, Kurz, in writing and hand over all chats and the backup to him.
“Shortly promoted from the BMF”
More explosive statements follow: “I promoted Kurz and the ÖVP from the BMF, used the resources of the BMF to support the advancement of the ÖVP under Sebastian Kurz. This includes personnel in the cabinet, staffing, ‘wordings’, calculations, Preparations for negotiations for a new government, staff appointments and this sometimes bypasses the minister for Sebastian Kurz and his purposes.”
According to the minutes, Schmid continued: “Knowing that advertisements by the BMF may not be placed or paid for for election campaign purposes by the ÖVP, the BMF placed advertisements in all media for the 2017 election campaign.” Kurz’s spokesman told him that the BMF’s advertisements “can be booked at short notice”. The spokesman meant that Kurz could specify which topics and which media coverage would be placed in the “Austria” media group in return. “When I was still working in the BMF, it was the case that I had to announce and ‘register’ in the Federal Chancellery which advertising budget and which and which advertising budgets the BMF used.”
Sobotka intervened
Schmid also states that National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) intervened with him to stop tax audits at the “Alios Mock Foundation or at the Alios Mock Institute” and at the “Erwin Proell Foundation”. “It was then settled according to Mag. Sobotka.”
Regarding the survey affair surrounding the so-called leg scraper tool, Schmid writes: “I will take responsibility for this fact and will make a full statement. The suspicion presented in the file is essentially correct.” Ex-Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) is said to have known nothing about it, because: “It’s something that Kurz and I made up.” He had “already become nervous” when, for example, Kurz’s confidant, like Stefan Steiner and Gerald Fleischmann, called him in connection with the leg scraper tool.
When asked why Kurz did not approach him directly about the surveys despite the good relationship with each other, Schmid replies: “There were certainly security concerns that Kurz did not communicate directly with me, but the administration and the meetings carried out by his closest employees.”
Source: Nachrichten
