The activities of the former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) since he left politics are partly known, partly the public knows nothing about them.
Yesterday it became public through a Dutch investigative platform that Kurz is employed by Masdar’s European branch. This is a company in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi that deals with renewable energy and hydrogen.
According to the company register, Kurz took up the post of director of the European subsidiary at the end of April 2022, around six months after his resignation as Chancellor. The owners of Masdar are the billion-dollar sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and the Abu Dhabi state oil company Adnoc (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company), which also has a quarter stake in the Austrian OMV.
There is a history of Kurz and the Arab Emirates: At the end of July 2021, the Republic of Austria and the Emirates agreed in Vienna to a “strategic partnership” for “closer cooperation in the field of hydrogen,” as it was said on the Austrian Foreign Ministry website at the time. Masdar is primarily responsible for the hydrogen sector in the Emirates.
It was already known that the VP was active as an investor and entrepreneur with his “SK Management GmbH”, for example in the USA and Israel. During the Signa Holding insolvency, it emerged that Kurz had brokered an investment of 100 million euros and was to receive 2.4 million euros in commission. 1.65 million are open.
