The SPÖ faction leader in the Ibiza Committee of Inquiry, Jan Krainer, said: “The verdict is confirmed: You could buy laws under turquoise-blue.” The committee’s findings give “a gloomy picture of a government that can be bought and which has always been ready to act in the interests of major sponsors”.
Krainer, as usual aggressive: “When the ÖVP and the FPÖ rule together, there are only two stations over and over again: the government bank and the dock.” He reckons that the verdict will “cast its shadow over other trials”.
Neos chairwoman Beate Meinl-Reisinger called Strache’s preliminary conviction “a result of the investigative committee and a consistently working judiciary as a result of the Ibiza video”. That is important for a clean policy – “and more must follow”. Because: “You dance a Tango Korrupti in pairs.” The ÖVP was also “rightly put into the spotlight” in the U-Committee. For the green group leader in the U-Committee, Nina Tomaselli, the judgment is an important stage in the “self-cleaning process to Ibiza”. A functioning constitutional state is “a shield against corruption”, and it has to stay that way.
A “landmark decision” is the conviction of Martin Kreutner from the rule of law and anti-corruption referendum; but this is “just a beginning”. “Bribery and corruption are poison for every community, because they undermine the trust of the population in politics and the rule of law,” said Kreutner. In this respect, it is “gratifying that part of this confidence has been restored today”.
