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fromFlorian Naumann
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Sebastian Kurz could face a new scandal: On Wednesday, confidants of the Austrian Chancellor were the target of a raid. His ÖVP shoots at the investigators.
Update from October 6th, 2021, 5:35 p.m.: After the raid in the Austrian Chancellery on Wednesday, more details became known. The public prosecutor accuses the team around Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) of infidelity, bribery and corruption.
The Austrian investigative online portal Quickly According to the dpa, there should be an explosive document. Accordingly, Chancellor Kurz is said to have been involved in influencing editorial content in an Austrian media company via advertisements. By means of advertisements financed from taxpayers’ money, surveys are said to have been influenced, both in terms of time, question and evaluation. More than one million euros are said to have flowed from the funds of the Ministry of Finance when Kurz sought to take over the ÖVP, and the cooperation is said to have continued since the chancellorship. And the Austrians also learn more alleged details: “I’ve never really gone as far as we have. Great investment. (…) Who pays creates. I love that, “according to the investigation documents in a chat message from a brief confidante from the Ministry of Finance.
After the ÖVP, the media company had vehemently denied the allegations. “At no point in time was there an agreement between the AUSTRIA media group and the Ministry of Finance regarding the payment of surveys through advertisements,” announced the media group.
Austria: Is Chancellor Kurz threatened with a new scandal? Raid in the Austrian Chancellery and at the ÖVP
First report from October 6th, 2021, 12:32 p.m.: Vienna – Is Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his ÖVP threatened with a new scandal? On Wednesday morning, the Chancellery of the Alpine Republic and the party headquarters of the ruling Austrian People’s Party were searched. That reports the default citing “several people familiar with the processes”.
Sebastian Kurz: Raid in Vienna – there is a suspicion of corruption, is the Chancellor himself involved?
According to the newspaper, the immediate environment was Kurz’s target of the raid: Chancellor adviser Stefan Steiner, media officer Gerald Fleischmann and “a press officer”. Among other things, smartphones were confiscated. However, the presumption of innocence applies.
The newspaper Press named on Wednesday noon a possible background to the investigation: It was about a suspicion of corruption in connection with the publication of advertisements and opinion polls in the newspaper Austria. Kurz himself could also be involved, it said.
Austria: Sebastian Kurz experienced a raid in the Chancellery and party headquarters – ÖVP attacked investigators
The ÖVP confirmed the events indirectly in a dated default quoted press release. There would be “more allegations constructed about events that are in part five years ago,” said the party. She even seemed to raise again bitter accusations against the investigators: “It always happens with the same goal and system: to massively damage the People’s Party and Sebastian Kurz”. Earlier allegations against Kurz, Finance Minister Gernot Blümel and others have turned out to be baseless.
The specific background to the raid was initially unconfirmed. Chat logs of the Austrian Chancellor and his confidants have been the focus of attention several times in the past. Among other things, it was about the appointment of a confidante to head an influential state holding company. In the summer, Sebastian Kurz compared investigative activities with cases of abuse in the Catholic Church. The opposition Neos spoke of a “derailment”. (fn)