On Friday morning, a charming colleague asked the Austrian Justice Minister in a press conference whether the ÖVP had recently wanted to show its coalition partner, the Greens, “the instruments of torture.”
What he meant by that is explained immediately, just this much in advance: Because this part of the conversation, as journalists say, took place off-screen and is therefore not officially quotable, I am not allowed to write down your answer here. But Alma Zadić, the Green Justice Minister, appeared very relaxed. Despite almost four years of cooperation with the ÖVP, which demands a lot from the Greens and which their critics either describe as a coalition of self-denial or self-humiliation.
Zadić is apparently not afraid of torture, and not of the ÖVP either. Anyone who, like her, received 28,000 justifiable insults and threatening messages when they took office because a migrant from Bosnia-Herzegovina couldn’t possibly represent the Austrians as a minister is sufficiently hardened. One could have even seen from Alma Zadić’s reaction to the question about the ÖVP with a little ill will that she doesn’t take the conservatives and their actions 100 percent seriously.
The question was prompted by a strange incident: an ÖVP employee sent an internal email to the wrong recipient, whereupon the content of the message found its way into the media. Accordingly, the ÖVP is considering setting up a committee of inquiry that would also be directed against the green coalition partner. The aim is to investigate whether cabinet members and employees reporting to them who are “connected” to the SPÖ, the FPÖ or the Greens acted for “unrelated motives” in connection with advertisements and media cooperation agreements, surveys, reports and studies.
Because the ÖVP has been under investigation for exactly these allegations for a long time – because of surveys and advertising that were financed with taxpayers’ money and were presumably explicitly intended to benefit the ÖVP – the ÖVP now apparently wants to turn the spotlight on others. She talks about “mind games.” At the same time, media from the ÖVP and FPÖ environment reported that investigations were underway against the magazine butterfly should have been included. The butterfly I allowed myself to be bribed with advertising by the SPÖ for friendly reporting. In fact, there is nothing more than a thin, anonymous ad.
Such leaked plans, emails and advertisements are probably just tactical diversionary tactics. Or SNU, “strategically useful nonsense,” as they say in ÖVP circles. The trial against ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz begins on October 18th on charges of making false statements before the ÖVP corruption investigation committee. No wonder it takes a lot of stun grenades.
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