Proceedings against National Council President Sobotka discontinued

He was listed as a suspect on suspicion of abuse of office. He sees the fact that advertisements are increasingly being used in politics as a “dangerous development”. There have already been six reports against him in this legislative period.

Sobotka said he was informed of the discontinuation of the proceedings in December 2023 and that no abuse could be proven. The background is a position filled in 2017. Andrea Jelinek is said to have been prevented from becoming Vienna’s deputy regional police director because she was perceived as being close to the SPÖ, according to the suspicion at the time. From a chat on former cabinet chief Michael Kloibmüller’s cell phone, it emerged that the ÖVP was said to have taken care of an opposing candidate and that Sobotka, then Interior Minister, was also involved. Franz Eigner, who is close to the ÖVP, got the job. Sobotka said on Friday that he was also first in line and that he was not aware of any guilt. The background to the investigation was a complaint from ex-politician Peter Pilz.

Of course he received “a lot of text messages” during this time, said Sobotka. However, he always relied on the order commissions – “for all orders”. He also addressed the topic of interventions – for him it was all about providing background and information about a person. He is concerned about the increased use of advertisements he has noticed: “I think this is an absolutely dangerous development in politics.”

“Shattering” on someone not only damages the reputation of the person being prejudged, but also the office. Political fringes would benefit from this, trust in politics would suffer and there would hardly be any more candidates for political offices – even at the lowest levels. That was not his understanding of politics, which might also explain why he didn’t draw any conclusions, said Sobotka. He appealed to make politics based on issues.

Most recently, Sobotka was “extradited” by the National Council at the request of the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA). This concerns a tax case in which the former Secretary General of the Ministry of Finance Thomas Schmid is said to have submitted incriminating correspondence. According to Schmid’s account, Sobotka is said to have intervened with him during a tax audit of the (now dissolved) Erwin Pröll Foundation, which the President of the National Council denies as “far-fetched”.

Sobotka said he hopes to see an expansion of the rights of the accused during this legislative period. He also wants to advocate for a real name requirement in the digital space. He doesn’t yet know whether he will run in the National Council election: “I’ll cross the bridge when it’s there.”

“The media prejudgment turns out to be wrong once again,” summed up ÖVP general secretary Christian Stocker in a statement to the APA. He criticized the opposition for political heckling during judicial investigations. These are “not only dispensable, but also damage the reputation of the media, politics and the judiciary and thus our democracy.”

The verdict of the Freedom Party, who speak of Sobotka as a key player in a “deep black state,” was the opposite. General Secretary Christian Hafenecker called on the President of the National Council to resign in a broadcast and pointed out outstanding allegations against him – including from the “Pilnacek recordings” and because of interventions in the room surrounding the tax audit of the Erwin Pröll Foundation.

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