The Austrian public prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday (October 6th) that a corruption investigation was targeting Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the latter being suspected of having used government funds to secure favorable media coverage.
“Sebastian Kurz and nine other suspects, as well as three organizations” are being investigated for various corruption offenses related to this case, the prosecution said in a statement, after a series of searches. The investigators visited the offices of the head of government and the premises of the Ministry of Finance, according to the Austrian press.
Between 2016 and 2018, “Ministry resources were used to fund partially manipulated opinion polls that served an exclusively partisan political interest”, estimates the prosecution. At that time, Mr. Kurz was not yet Chancellor, but was part of the government. According to prosecutors, a media group allegedly “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.
Multiplication of investigations for corruption
Earlier on Wednesday, the headquarters of the chancellor’s party, the ÖVP, was also raided. In a press release, the deputy secretary general of this conservative party, Gaby Schwarz had denounced a “Staging” and “Charges fabricated on the basis of facts five years old”.
Since the Ibizagate corruption scandal that hit Austria’s far-right party, the FPÖ, investigations for alleged corruption have multiplied against Austrian policies. The Minister of Finance, Gernot Blümel, a relative of Mr. Kurz, is already implicated and suspected of being involved in the secret financing of the party by the global gaming giant Novomatic. His home was searched in February.
The Austrian chancellor himself is targeted by another prosecution investigation, without being charged. Justice suspects Mr. Kurz of having lied last year in front of deputies who sought to know if he had intervened in the appointment of a relative, Thomas Schmid, at the head of a public holding company.