The parquet estimates that, from 2016 to 2018, “Departmental resources were used to finance partially manipulated opinion polls”. Sebastian Kurz was not chancellor, but was part of the government.
Le Monde with AFP
The Austrian parquet announced, Wednesday, October 6, that a corruption survey was aimed at Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the latter suspected of using government funds to ensure favorable media coverage.
“Sebastian Kurz and nine other suspects, as well as three organizations” are investigated for various corruption offenses related to this case, specified the prosecutor in a statement, after a series of searches.
Earlier in Wednesday, the headquarters of the Conservative Party ÖVP in power, indeed, been searched, had announced the party. In a statement, the Assistant Secretary General of the ÖVP Gaby Schwarz had denounced a “staging” and “accusations made on the basis of five-year-old facts”. The investigators also moved to the offices of the Head of Government and the premises of the Ministry of Finance, according to the Austrian press.
Multiplication of investigations for corruption
Between 2016 and 2018, “Ministry’s resources were used to fund partially manipulated opinion polls that served exclusively partisan political interest”, estimates the prosecution. At this time, Mr. Kurz was not yet Chancellor, but was part of the government. According to prosecutors, a group of media would have “received payments” in exchange for the publication of these popularity surveys. The company in question has been widely identified in the media as the tabloid Österreich.
Since January 2020, Sebastian Kurz governs the Austria at the head of a coalition with the Greens, a second term obtained after the Ibizagate, this corruption scandal that splashed the FPÖ and shatter the alliance. That the Chancellor had concluded with this far-right party in May 2019. Since the former leader of the FPÖ, Heinz-Christian Strache, was surprised by hidden camera images showing it in 2017 during holidays in Ibiza by train MONNAY Public Contracts In exchange for occult financing in its election campaign, alleged corruption surveys have multiplied against the Austrian political class.
The Minister of Finance, Gernot Blümel, a close to Mr. Kurz, is already questioned and suspected of being involved in the occult financing of the party by the Global Gambling NovoMatic Games. His home was searched in February. The Austrian Chancellor itself is targeted by another survey of the prosecution, without being charged. Justice suspects Mr. Kurz last year before members who were looking for if he had intervened in the appointment of a loved one, Thomas Schmid, at the head of a public holding.