Just in time for the anniversary of the outbreak of the Ibiza affair with the publication of the scandal video with ex-FP boss Heinz-Christian Strache, Justice Minister Alma Zadic (Greens) announced a legislative package on Sunday. According to the plans, corruption should also be punishable if appropriate promises come from a politician who cannot (yet) implement them from his function.
The background: In the video, Strache held out the prospect of a supposed Russian oligarch niece, among other things, to public contracts should she work as a building contractor in Austria. Even for a partial privatization of drinking water that the woman mentioned, he showed himself willing to talk – all in connection with the promise of party donations.
- Video: Exactly one year after the “Ibiza video” appeared, Justice Minister Alma Zadic (Green) initiated legal consequences of the affair.
No government office
The video trap snapped in the summer of 2017. At that time, the later Vice Chancellor Strache FP club chairman was in the National Council, not in a government office where he could have implemented such decisions. According to applicable law, it was about boasting without criminal consequences.
“It scratches our sense of justice and our belief in democracy,” Zadic justified the need for action. Similar to Germany, an amendment is supposed to be the responsibility of a person when he or she strives for political office. Specifically recorded under criminal law would be the pushing of businesses in return for party political favors. A draft for this will soon be sent for review and can be decided after the summer, said Zadic.
- Video: Hans Bürger (ORF) on the consequences of the “Ibiza affair”
The minister is planning another repair, for which the FPÖ is also said to have provided the occasion: it is about the accusation that the FPÖ would have given a middleman of Ukrainian oligarchs a secure place on their election list for the National Council in 2015 at their insistence. The judiciary has never checked whether these allegations are correct and whether there was anything in return, because such practice is currently not punishable at all, said Zadic. In the future, mandate purchases are to be criminally prohibited for both the client, the prospective mandate and the party accepting the benefits.
The third part of the anti-corruption package concerns a corruption report, which is to be included in the security report that will be published in the autumn with its own statistics. Zadic hopes that the better data situation will enable it to make even better decisions to combat corruption.
- Video: “Enough is enough”: Exactly a year ago, on May 17, 2019, the publication of the Ibiza video triggered a state crisis in Austria. Thousands of people are calling for new elections in front of the Federal Chancellery.
Hidden party funding
Dosed praise came from the opposition. Neos justice spokesman Johannes Margreiter welcomes the package, which “does not go far enough”. A year after Ibiza “covert party support is still possible”. A deadlock must also be put on this. SP justice spokeswoman Selma Yildirim spoke of a “gap closing” to Ibiza, which must now be implemented quickly to counteract the moral decline of political culture.
FP club chairman Herbert Kickl only agreed that the anti-corruption package would be dealt with intensively.
Opposition wants Pilnacek to be kicked out
Christian Pilnacek, Head of Section for Criminal Law in the Ministry of Justice, has been controversial since his “advice” to the Corruption Prosecutors (WKStA) last year, after all “daschlogn” parts of the Eurofighter investigation. In the meantime, e-mails have appeared in which Pilnacek suggests that the WKStA’s services be publicly criticized. Justice Minister Alma Zadic (Greens) has so far held on to Pilnacek and only wants to decide “on May 31” whether his contract as section head is extended or not.
FP club boss Herbert Kickl described Pilnacek as an “executor of Turkish party politics”, Zadic had to fire it in order to be credible. For Stephanie Krisper (Neos), Pilnacek is “intolerable” because he holds back files for the Ibiza committee. Like the SPÖ, it wants a federal prosecutor free of instructions.
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