Austria’s political elite had communicated somewhat carelessly with their smartphones. Thomas Schmid’s now famous chats proved to be a treasure trove for the public prosecutors. Now the former high official wants to become a key witness in the advertisement affair and has therefore unpacked. Who is the man?
Relations between politics and the tabloid media in Austria are generally close.
Chat messages are a private communication between acquaintances – one thinks. The Austrians now know better; Apparently private things have become highly political there and triggered the fall of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz a year ago. A single smartphone, or more precisely the back-up of tens of thousands of messages from one person, had plunged the republic into a government crisis.
The device from Thomas Schmid, who worked for several finance ministers between 2013 and 2019 as head of cabinet and general secretary, proved to be a treasure trove for the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA). The 45-year-old saw himself in another, more informal function, as he told Kurz in one of the countless chats, half pompous, half flattering: “I’m one of your praetorians who doesn’t cause problems, but solves them,” he wrote in 2018 .
The praetorians were a kind of guard troop of the ancient Roman emperors – and a latent danger for the ruler. Emperor Caligula was murdered in 41 by members of the Praetorians, among others.
In the meantime, however, Schmid is causing problems for the former chancellor. On Tuesday it became known that he wanted to become a key witness for the public prosecutor’s office in order to obtain benevolent reporting in the affair about advertisements allegedly paid for with tax money. He therefore unpacked in 15 all-day interrogations and fully confirmed the allegations in the room. That puts Kurz in danger, den Schmid is not just any witness: he was a close confidant and the central player in the machinations.
The crucial question for the prosecutors is therefore how credible Schmid is. It is also conceivable that he simply wants to save his own skin – as a key witness he could remain unpunished for his own actions. This is also pointed out by Kurz and his lawyer, who portray Schmid as a notorious liar. Who is the man?
The close relationship between politics and the media
The Austrians know how the emotional world of the manic communicator has been in recent years since new chat messages from him have been constantly coming to light. They bear witness to his career fears and arrogance, but also provide insights into Kurz’s political circles.
“Thank you for Austria today!” Kurz wrote to Schmid in January 2017, for example. “Always at your service :-))”, replied Schmid, then Secretary General in the Ministry of Finance, referring to a publication in the tabloid “Österreich”.
This news is one of many that the prosecutors interpret as an indication that a circle around Kurz at the Austrian media company owned by the Fellner brothers bought benevolent reporting from 2016 to at least 2018. Partially manipulated polls should make Kurz look good and his opponent in the ÖVP, then party leader Reinhold Mitterlehner, bad. “Good news on the survey front,” said Schmid in a message to Kurz in 2016.
Such chats reflect how close the relationship between politics and the tabloid media in Austria is in general. In the Kurz affair, however, there is an additional serious allegation: hidden money is said to have flowed to the Fellners from the Ministry of Finance. Schmid to a spokesman: “I’ve never really gone as far as we have. Brilliant investment. And Fellner is a capitalist. Who pays creates. I love that.”
If tax money was actually misappropriated, that would be breach of trust under Austrian criminal law. However, Kurz is said not to have been directly involved in the action; Rather, according to the interpretation of the prosecutors, he instigated Schmid to do so.
As head of cabinet and general secretary, Schmid held a position that made such a powerhouse role possible. ministers come and go; they are often not in office long enough to see through the processes in the offices. Heads of cabinet, on the other hand, have connections and know the inner workings of an agency. And they know the relevant officials, especially when they have held their position for as long as Schmid did.
He and Kurz have known each other for many years. Both belong to the circle of former ÖVP politician Michael Spindelegger. He is regarded as a sponsor of the departed chancellor; Schmid, in turn, acted as Spindelegger’s head of cabinet during his time as finance minister from 2013 to 2014.
The “mother” of all scandals
The circumstances surrounding how Schmid’s chats came to light at all are confusing. The prosecutors of the WKStA confiscated Schmid’s smartphone in 2019 during the investigation into the “casino affair” and evaluated the news; later these were made public by politicians. The Casinos affair is regarded as the “mother” of all current Austrian scandals. It is about the suspicion of the Postenschacher at Casinos Austria and about concessions in the gambling legislation.
Schmid does not seem to play a key role in this affair. However, in the course of their investigations, the public prosecutors came across numerous chats from Schmid about events at Austria’s state investment company Öbag, which also made them sit up and take notice. The news documents how the Secretary General of the Ministry of Finance managed to become head of Öbag in 2019.
This holding holds shares in several large companies, including the oil company OMV, the electricity company Verbund and Telekom Austria. It is, so to speak, Austria’s silverware, as the market value of the shares is an impressive 27 billion euros. The head of the Öbag holds the highest economic post in the republic.
From 2017, Schmid developed a hectic actionism to become head of the holding company. It seems he also cleared obstacles in the way. In an early draft of the advertisement, for example, “international experience” was still a requirement for the position. Since Schmid could not produce such, in his capacity as Secretary General he made sure that the passage disappeared from the job profile.
Schmid had the backing of the ÖVP network, because the former Minister of Finance and close ally of Kurz, Gernot Blümel, told him in a flippantly formulated chat: “You are family”. And Sebastian Kurz wrote: “You’ll get everything you want anyway.”
How explosive Schmid’s news is is shown by the fact that, among other things, this news made the public prosecutors prick up their ears in another matter. It’s about the question of how much Kurz was involved in Schmid’s appointment as Öbag boss. In a parliamentary committee of inquiry, the former Chancellor stated that he had not spoken to Schmid about his professional ambitions.
According to the prosecutors, Schmid thanked Kurz several times for everything he had done for him before and after the nomination. Therefore, they suspect Kurz of having made a false statement in the committee. If this had been done knowingly, it would be a criminal offence.
The benefits of coffee talk
In business, there have been rules for some time about how employees can use social networks. In politics, morals were apparently relaxed, probably not only in Kurz’s environment, but also in other parties. But their chats just never got to the public.
But thanks to Schmid, all politicians now know that chatting only appears to be as private as a coffee chat, in which the other party is often asked to keep what was said to themselves.