2023-07-07 18:13:15
Reinhard Klaushofer, Monika Stempkowski, Theo Thanner, Christof Tschohl and Ingeborg Zerbes will control the Office for the Protection of the Constitution
Vienna (PK) – With a delay of more than a year, the National Council today elected the members of the independent control commission for the protection of the constitution. On Proposal of the Main Committee the lawyers Reinhard Klaushofer, Monika Stempkowski, Theo Thanner, Christof Tschohl and Ingeborg Zerbes were entrusted with this function for a ten-year term. Your task will be to monitor the legal fulfillment of tasks by the Directorate for State Security and Intelligence (DSN) and the corresponding organizational units of the state police departments. The election took place against the votes of the FPÖ, but this did not jeopardize the two-thirds majority required for the election.
FPÖ criticizes “denigration” of their candidate
The debate before the election was sometimes very emotional. FPÖ MP Hannes Amesbauer spoke of “an absolute low point in his parliamentary activity” in connection with the election proposal and launched serious attacks against the Greens. They “constructed” allegations of right-wing extremism in order to “vilely defame and denigrate” a candidate nominated by the FPÖ. This person was an “impeccable” high official of the state of Styria and a former lawyer, who was also a lieutenant colonel in the militia.
According to Amesbauer, the FPÖ would have preferred anyway if the parliamentary parties had agreed on a three-party proposal, as originally planned. However, since this did not come about, which Amesbauer described as “embarrassing enough”, it was finally agreed to increase the control commission to five members. According to him, this was accompanied by the agreement that the FPÖ could also propose someone. Amesbauer emphasized that the reorganization of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the establishment of the control commission were a “real concern” for him and the FPÖ, but the questionable ordering process now gives him a “leap of mistrust”, although he still wishes the commission success in its work .
NEOS locate “party political games”
The other fractions also spoke of a “difficult finding process” and a “long party dispute”. Although she is happy about today’s election and the nominees, NEOS MP Stephanie Krisper noted that “we should have gotten started” much earlier. If you add further necessary lead times, the control commission will only be able to act two years after the establishment of the DSN. Krisper attributed the lengthy decision-making process to “partisan games” by many and said it was “incredibly embarrassing” that it took so long. Ultimately, however, they agreed on people “who are really good”. According to Krisper, NEOS did not have their own candidate.
ÖVP and Greens: Good cooperation between the commission members is important
On the part of the coalition parties, Christian Stocker (ÖVP) and Georg Bürstmayr (Greens) pointed out that it was not just about finding qualified candidates: the members of the commission also had to be able to work well together. After all, the Control Commission is not “any kind of advisory board”, but an essential auxiliary body of Parliament or the Standing Subcommittee of the Committee on Internal Affairs, which has access to highly sensitive information and secret documents and is also a contact point for whistleblowers, stressed Bürstmayr. In this sense, he expressed regret about the “very long party dispute” and that the FPÖ had apparently gained the impression that with five candidates each party could nominate one person.
From his point of view, all candidates were respectable personalities and each one was suitable for themselves, emphasized ÖVP MP Christian Stocker. He attributed the “difficult finding process” to, among other things, comprehensive reasons for exclusion, the ten-year term of office and the fact that the members of the commission also had to understand each other. He is pleased that a majority has now been found and that the commission can start working with it, he said.
In the direction of the FPÖ, Stocker stated that the reorganization of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had only become necessary because FPÖ boss Herbert Kickl, then Minister of the Interior, had weakened the BAT to such an extent that a successor organization had to be founded. He also objected to statements by FPÖ MP Christian Hafenecker that state security was still not working because there was still enormous party political influence.
SPÖ: The Greens messed up the unanimous decision
SPÖ MP Reinhold Einwallner emphasized that the independent control commission is an important instrument and also enhances the role of parliament in monitoring the protection of the constitution. The process took far too long and was actually “very laborious”, he agreed with the critics. Einwallner blamed the Greens for the fact that a unanimous decision was not reached despite a pool of candidates. It was important to the SPÖ that data protection competence and competence in the technical area were represented in the control commission. (Continued National Council) gs
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