If the FPÖ takes its own previous demands seriously, party leader Herbert Kickl, the third National Council President Norbert Hofer and the Styrian top candidate Mario Kunasek would have to resign, said ÖVP General Secretary Christian Stocker on Tuesday at a short-term press conference.
From Stocker’s point of view, the list of the FPÖ’s transgressions is long. He named suspected connections between the FPÖ and ex-secret service employee Egisto Ott, who was accused of espionage, opaque processes surrounding the advertising agency Ideas Forge with Kickl as a possible beneficiary, and the Graz financial case, which was recently expanded to include investigations into child abuse images. But with the advertisement case, “a new quality has been added”.
Since mid-April, the WKStA has been investigating former Interior Minister Kickl, ex-Transport Minister Hofer, ex-Defense Minister Kunasek, ex-FPÖ boss and Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache and the former Blue Minister Beate Hartinger-Klein and the former Blue Minister Beate Hartinger-Klein since mid-April on suspicion of advertising corruption Managing Director of the Austrian Media Group, Wolfgang Fellner. Strache and Fellner are being investigated on suspicion of bribery or bribery and the former blue ministerial team on suspicion of breach of trust. “This suspicion of advertising corruption is serious,” said the ÖVP general secretary. The amount of scandals now shows “the true face of Herbert Kickl and his party”.
Stocker called the fact that the FPÖ spoke of a “deep state” in its reaction to the WKStA investigations and hinted at political infiltration of the public prosecutor’s office “classic influence on the judiciary.” In the past, Kickl has always called for resignations during investigations against other political parties. If the FPÖ does not apply double standards and also applies the required standards to itself, Kickl, Hofer and Kunasek would now have to resign. He also expects Kickl to submit an application for the lifting of his parliamentary immunity in order to enable criminal investigations to be carried out quickly.
He also assumes that the Economic and Corruption Public Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA) will not only look at advertising corruption surrounding Freedom Party supporters, but also the SPÖ and especially the city of Vienna, demanded Stocker. After all, ex-SPÖ Chancellor Christian Kern once spoke in this context of the SPÖ’s original sin. “It cannot be the case that the perpetrators of advertising corruption are spared and the focus is always on others.”
The fact that top representatives of the ÖVP have been under investigation by the WKStA for three years in the so-called advertisement and survey affair was no reason for Stocker to hold back from criticism in the FPÖ advertisement case when asked. “Does that change anything?” In this affair, tax money from ÖVP-run ministries is said to have paid for surveys and placed them in the media, and former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and the party are said to have benefited from this. The investigations into the so-called “Beinschab tool” (desired surveys by pollster Sabine Beinschab published in the daily newspaper “Österreich” and paid for by the Ministry of Finance) are based, among other things, on the evaluation of cell phone chats and statements by ex-Finance Ministry Secretary General Thomas Schmid. In addition to Kurz, Schmid also incriminated his closest confidants at the time in the case, including ex-Chancellor spokesman Johannes Frischmann, Kurz’s advisor Stefan Steiner and the former and current head of communications Gerald Fleischmann. The accused have rejected the allegations, and pollster Sabine Beinschab is a key witness in this case.
“We look forward to the investigation calmly”
The FPÖ emphasized in a broadcast on Tuesday that it viewed the investigation calmly. Advertising orders from FPÖ-led ministries were based purely on objective criteria and topics, and there were no irregularities in the volume of advertisements placed. “‘The thief shouts: Stop the thief!’, that’s actually what the ÖVP and Mr. Stocker delivered again today.”
After the ÖVP’s “attempts” and “dirt buckets” against the FPÖ had so far failed to work, the People’s Party ordered proceedings to stage an alleged scandal from the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office, “at whose head is known to be a central element of the deep black state.” “said Secretary General Christian Hafenecker. The Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office made it clear in a broadcast on Tuesday that although it was formally responsible for the proceedings, it was being carried out by another senior public prosecutor’s office assigned by the Ministry of Justice. The Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office knows neither the report nor the instructions.
Meanwhile, “Austria” sees itself drawn into a “political mudslinging between the ÖVP-affiliated Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office and the FPÖ” in relation to the FPÖ investigations in its Tuesday edition. The investigation against Fellner and the FPÖ politicians was initiated without concrete evidence based on dubious SMS chats and all of this “purely by chance two weeks before the EU elections”. The allegations are “simply absurd and completely false.”
