“I’m fed up with my name being used by Kurz and his lawyers to abuse me as an exonerating witness,” Mitterlehner said verbatim – according to the TT advance notice. He did not want to say anything more about “all the unbelievable events”. But “I can no longer accept the unsuitable exoneration attempts in silence,” said Kurz’s predecessor.
According to the TT, the statements in the “courier” of lawyer Norbert Weiss in defense of his client, ex-family minister Sophie Karmasin, who was also accused in the ÖVP affair, and above all the reply from ÖVP club vice-president have brought the barrel to overflowing Wöginger. He announced on Wednesday at the Council of Ministers doorstep that he saw Kurz “massively” relieved – because it was now clear that the chat had been misinterpreted. In truth, Kurz would have wanted to meet Karmasin to prevent the minister from resigning.
Mitterlehner vehemently opposes this: From the chat history it is “clear to him that the meeting Kurz with Karmasin was about opinion polls, and not about resignation or new elections. Furthermore, it is absurd that Kurz worried about new elections because a poll was already taking place was in the field, which should prove that Kurz would be by far the better candidate if new elections were to take place immediately. “
According to Mitterlehner, Wöginger’s and Wöss’ interpretation is “diametrically opposed to the course of the chat”. Because three days before Mitterlehner’s meeting with Karmasin, Thomas Schmid tweeted on Kurz: “Good news from the front survey. Sophie, I don’t know if I was able to persuade.” “Can I talk to her,” replied Kurz. Schmid then said: “Yes, please! She is so pissed off about Mitterlehner because he stabbed her in the back. I’ve spoken to her for 3 hours now. And spindi (Mitterlehner’s predecessor Michael Spindelegger, note) is working on her.” And Schmid wrote further: “If you tell her that the world is not going to end now. And the Mitterlehner was just an ass, etc. That sure helps.” “I’ll make it,” answered Kurz.
The public prosecutor’s office for business and corruption is investigating, among others, against Karmasin, Kurz and “Austria” publisher Wolfgang Fellner for breach of trust, bribery and corruption. The allegation is that funds from the Ministry of Finance, i.e. tax money, were used to pay for manipulated surveys of an opinion research company in “Austria”, which were only of part-political interest.
Source From: Nachrichten
