On Wednesday evening, Werner Suppan struck back for his client. He dropped the “bomb” and sent the authorities a tape recording of a phone call between Thomas Schmid and Sebastian Kurz. This should “massively refute” Schmid’s statements and exonerate Kurz. The former ÖVP boss and ex-Chancellor is not the first VP client that Suppan represents in court. The 59-year-old Carinthian is the lawyer trusted by the People’s Party. He writes clarifications on media reports, represents ÖVP media and has already defended a number of VP politicians, including two ex-finance ministers: Gernot Blümel and Hartwig Löger.
He invests more than half of his working hours in political agendas, says Suppan, who runs a law firm in Vienna-Ottakring. Representing a party other than the People’s Party is out of the question for him. Also because of his past: Suppan was already involved in politics when he was a student and later also in party politics. From 2001 to 2010, the native of Klagenfurt was a VP district councilor in Ottakring. However, his ambitious attempt to become head of the Viennese state party was not crowned with success. The lawyer failed at the Austrian Employees’ Association, ÖAAB for short. Because he did not support him, but his rival Bernhard Görg.
Today, Suppan can only smile about this defeat. “Those were my youthful hotspur years,” he told OÖ Nachrichten. Werner Suppan’s dual role is seen very critically: since 2017 he has not only been working as a VP lawyer, but also as one of six substitute members of the Constitutional Court. This rise was made possible because Irmgard Griss had to resign as a substitute member at the end of 2016 due to her advanced age. Her successor causes contradictions because he also appears in the Ibiza investigative committee as the house and yard lawyer of the People’s Party.
Source: Nachrichten
