The “Standard” has published new news from the ÖVP environment. According to this, the former Minister of the Interior and current Governor of Lower Austria Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) wrote in a coalition debate about the refugee crisis and the reform of state security in a text message to her then head of cabinet Michael Kloibmüller in spring 2016: “Reds stay Gsindl! Have a nice ski day! “
The messages from Kloibmüller’s cell phone are said to have been illegally siphoned off: After his cell phone landed in the water during a cabinet excursion in 2017, the then speaker Michael Takacs handed it over to an IT expert in the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for repair. According to the Vienna public prosecutor’s office, he is said to have made a copy of the smartphone content and distributed it. Now, around the ÖVP corruption investigation committee, numerous chats are circulating from Kloibmüller’s cell phone.
“Show the Sozen where the hammer hangs”
According to “Standard”, they show, for example, the concern of a speaker about the fact that on the cabinet staff’s server “there is a list under Mr. Federal Minister Sobotka, which is called interventions and also lists all interventions with their status”. Sobotka wanted that, but “is it (-> file template) clever?”. Kloibmüller replied: “Well, it’s not there, I have to talk.”
According to the newspaper report, it is unclear which “interventions” were listed there. However, a case from 2017 is cited: At that time, the post of Vienna Deputy State Police Director became vacant. Andrea Jelinek applied to be his successor. However, the ÖVP prevented them because Jelinek had been assigned to the red half of the Reich.
The ÖVP is said to have taken care of an opposing candidate. Even Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka was busy filling the post. What did Kloibmüller think of the idea of letting Jelinek do it and having a wish fulfilled by the then mayor Michael Häupl (SPÖ)? Kloibmüller himself thought about a deal for a while, but then obviously didn’t think it was necessary: ”But as I saw that we got our man through, I thought I’d show the Sozen where the hammer hangs.”
Jelinek herself says about the “Standard” that she hasn’t noticed any of these interventions in the background: “But if someone works so hard that someone doesn’t become something, then that person can obviously do something.” She applied in the normal way and “never had a party book (from any party).” However, Jelinek emphasizes that she was never associated with the ÖVP environment. She was never particularly encouraged by a party.
Jelinek wants to be underlined that Pürstl did not dissuade her from her application. “We’ve known each other for many, many years, and he knows it’s pointless,” she says. But it hit her hard that she didn’t become vice president in 2017. What role does the party book play in filling posts in the interior department and the police? “Look at the occupations, then you will know,” says the experienced official, who has headed the data protection authority since 2013.
Public apology requested
The SPÖ reacted with outrage. “Apart from the gaffes towards the Social Democrats, the new chats paint another picture of the ÖVP, which sees the republic as a self-service shop and abuses ministries for their own partisan purposes and the advancement of their ‘family members’. The ÖVP should finally clear the way for new elections.” , demanded SPÖ federal manager Christian Deutsch. The SPÖ Lower Austria, with which the ÖVP maintains a working agreement in the country, called for a “public apology” and announced an open letter on the news. “Johanna Mikl-Leitner’s chat content thwarts the lip service to togetherness in Lower Austria. They defame political dissenters and show that the ÖVP is apparently not ready to find a consensus with its political competitors – the ÖVP is rather insulting,” criticized State party chairman LHStv. Franz Schnabel.
Source: Nachrichten
