The SPÖ had brought up the issue because it believes that it should hinder the work of the future U-Committee. The Chancellery replied that it was not about deletions at all, but about consolidation, with which the IT is bundled in the federal data center for security reasons.
The SPÖ and its parliamentary group leader in the U Committee, Jan Krainer, had already pulled up the debate that morning and introduced an “urgent question”, which the Chancellor could not answer given his trip to Brussels. Instead, Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) took up the afternoon to read out the answers from the Chancellery.
The SPÖ’s suspicions were all rejected. It was pointed out that other ministries, including the climate protection department, had already exported their data to the Federal Computing Center. Suspicions put forward by Krainer that transport companies were in action shortly before the house search in the Chancellery were also denied.
In addition, the ÖVP and the Greens tried to take the wind out of the sails with a motion for a resolution. In this, the Federal Government is requested to ensure that the necessary files and data are kept, for example in backup copies, for the exercise of parliamentary control rights, in particular the investigation committee that was last appointed.
“Largest data destruction of the Second Republic”
Before that, Krainer had seen the “probably greatest destruction of data in the Second Republic” in preparation at a press conference on Thursday morning. What exactly it is about: According to a letter from the Secretary General in the Chancellery Bernd Brünner, the e-mail inbox of the employees of the department is to be deleted on November 10th. The only exceptions to this would be messages from the previous year and those that employees want to keep.
Since the U-Committee can only start requesting files a few days later, important information for Krainer would be withheld from the committee. Until then, the ministries would be able to extinguish the hell out of it, he annoyed in the plenary. In the morning he was unable to say whether the procedure in the Chancellery is legal, as he is not a lawyer: “At least it is not politically possible.” This is all the more true as, according to information from the SPÖ, similar extinguishing campaigns are also being planned in other VP-led ministries such as finance and interior departments.
Brünner also targeted Krainer personally. This was not just anyone, but part of the Ballhausplatz project with which Sebastian Kurz once prepared to take over the chancellorship. In addition, he was later the Chancellor’s head of cabinet.
“That’s really no behavior”
In the afternoon’s debate, the justification given by Kogler by the Chancellery, according to which it was an IT security strategy and not a deletion, was not enough for the SPÖ. Vice-club boss Jörg Leichtfried brought in his own motion for a resolution for “an end to shredding” and warned of the “largest extinguishing operation of the Second Republic”. Christian Hafenecker (FPÖ) didn’t trust the cybersecurity argument either, while Helmut Brandstätter (NEOS) generally demanded that the ÖVP put an end to the indecency.
Eva Blimlinger (Greens) was particularly bothered by the fact that Schallenberg’s Vice Chancellor Kogler was drawn into the query response, knowing that Schallenberg was absent: “Don’t be angry with me, but that’s really not behavior,” she said in the direction of the SPÖ. Wolfgang Gerstl (ÖVP) was hit by the scandal, although the Chancellery had actively announced its security strategy.
