2024-04-17 10:05:07
The Russian espionage affair also occupied the National Council on Wednesday and caused heated debates. The ÖVP used the “Current Hour” it requested on the subject of state security at the start of the National Council meeting to launch a new frontal attack on the FPÖ and its leader Herbert Kickl. In line with the Greens, they accused Kickl of deliberately destroying state security. The FPÖ, SPÖ and NEOS, on the other hand, also saw the ÖVP as responsible.
At the beginning of the debate, ÖVP General Secretary Christian Stocker launched a sweeping attack against the Freedom Party. He once again accused Kickl of destroying state security during his term as interior minister. Today it is clear that a network around the suspected spy Egisto Ott provided the basis for the raid on BVT and that this network had close connections to the FPÖ. “The FPÖ is actually the Russian Trojan in Austria,” said Stocker. The EU’s top candidate Reinhold Lopatka (ÖVP) warned that the affair was enormously damaging to Austria’s reputation.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) emphasized that state security in the form of the BVT’s successor organization, the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN), is “now functioning again”. The connections to international partners are also intact again after the international isolation due to the illegal house search at the BVT under Interior Minister Kickl, said Karner, who used his speech to once again call for modern investigative methods for the police in order to also monitor internet telephony and messenger services .
The Green Club leader Sigrid Maurer also criticized the “willful destruction of the state security service” through the raids under Kickl as Interior Minister. She once again accused the FPÖ of having close ties to Russia and referred to the friendship treaty with Putin’s United Russia party. Contrary to the statements of the FPÖ, this is “still upheld”. “Yes, where is the termination?” asked Maurer in the direction of the FPÖ and accused them of not being credible on this question.
FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl, who was added to the list of speakers at short notice, angrily rejected all allegations and described the debate as an “hour of disinformation and fake news”. At the time he took office as Interior Minister, the BVT was a “neglected, run-down institution” characterized by sloppiness. This “disastrous situation” was the result of decades of ÖVP responsibility in this area, which created the “breeding ground” for the outflow of information.
The SPÖ and NEOS also saw responsibility for the espionage affair not only with the FPÖ, but also with the People’s Party. SPÖ MP Reinhold Einwallner spoke of an “unworthy spectacle” that the FPÖ and ÖVP, who have led the Interior Ministry for 24 years, were now shifting responsibility back and forth. Like NEOS and FPÖ, the SPÖ recalled that the ÖVP had subsequently publicly supported the BVT raid.
“It is unbelievable how they are rewriting history and shirking responsibility,” said NEOS mandate Stephanie Krisper, accusing the ÖVP of “abandoning children.” After all, it was the ÖVP that brought the FPÖ into government and also allowed Kickl to become interior minister.
1713348500
#Heated #debate #Russia #espionage #affair #parliament