A former confidant has made serious allegations in the corruption trial against Austria’s ex-Chancellor Kurz. Kurz is said to have influenced the allocation of positions at the state holding company Öbag. He denies that.
According to an important witness, Austria’s former chancellor Sebastian Kurz had a significant influence on the filling of positions at the state holding company Öbag. When submitting names for the Öbag supervisory board, the then head of government and his team gave a yes or no, said former Öbag boss Thomas Schmid before the Vienna regional court. “That was a right of veto,” said Schmid.
Kurz has to answer on suspicion of making false statements. According to the prosecution, he is said to have downplayed his role in filling Öbag’s positions during his testimony in the parliamentary Ibiza committee of inquiry in 2020. The then popular chancellor, who had promised a new style of government, did not want to come under suspicion of political post-fixing, according to the public prosecutor’s office regarding the possible motive.
Familiar distances oneself
Schmid, who was part of the then Chancellor’s inner circle, was head of the state holding company that manages the country’s billion-dollar company investments from 2019 to 2021. The 48-year-old Schmid is being investigated in several other cases – he is aiming for star witness status. He has now made a fresh start, says Schmid. “Today I have nothing more to do with Mr. Kurz.”
In principle, it was clear to everyone at the time that important personnel decisions had to be coordinated closely with the top of the government, Schmid continued. Kurz “supported his ambitions to become head of Öbag from the start.”
Kurz pretends to be innocent
Kurz denies the allegations. Before the trial began, he was confident. “I believe that today will open some people’s eyes to the methods used here,” said the 37-year-old. The former finance ministers Gernot Blümel and Hartwig Löger will soon be invited to the trial.
Kurz became Austrian Chancellor in December 2017 – one of the youngest heads of government in the world. He resigned in the fall of 2021 and left politics completely a short time later. He now works as an entrepreneur. If convicted, Kurz could face up to three years in prison. It is not yet clear when a verdict can be expected.
The Ibiza affair was the trigger
The trial against Kurz is part of the process of coming to terms with the government of the conservative ÖVP and the right-wing FPÖ from 2017 to 2019. The coalition collapsed in 2019 after the publication of a video secretly recorded in Ibiza. The then FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache appeared vulnerable to corruption. The Ibiza Committee of Inquiry should investigate evidence of corruption in the Kurz government.
Oliver Soos, ARD Vienna, tagesschau, December 11th, 2023 4:54 p.m