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The ÖVP wants an independent federal prosecutor, reorganize the corporate and corruption prosecution, fair and fast procedures. Bravo. For eleven years, the Popular Party appointed the ministers of Justice. Now he throws a lot of reform proposals on the table of the Greens, who are now responsible.
The fact that the Chancellor’s party is really interested in the matter is not very credible. Since the search of the house of its finance minister, Gernot Blümel, the Turquoises have shot corruption hunters from every angle. Nervous? After all, the next address could be the Chancellor’s.
But even if the ÖVP says so honestly, a factual discussion in this way is not possible. The Greens are pushed into a rigid defensive posture by their coalition partner, and that means religious warfare rather than discussion. Some of the suggestions that are now on the table are not new at all, they come from a time when the turquoise around Sebastian Kurz did not yet exist.
For example, the idea of a federal prosecutor who oversees all prosecution offices is a good one; Such an institution exists in many European countries. It would be bad if this chief judicial representative had to report to parliament in the middle of the process. Because there is a party that is being investigated, it may be setting the tone.
Of course, there must be some control in a democracy with a single person responsible for the entire law enforcement arsenal. This purpose is also served if a future federal prosecutor is only liable after the conclusion of a proceeding, when politics can no longer intervene or exert pressure.
It is worth discussing the ÖVP’s proposal to return the anti-corruption authority to its original purpose and to divide economic criminal cases between four special authorities across Austria. Transitional Justice Minister Clemens Jabloner, more closely related to the SPÖ, suggested an assessment of the responsibilities of the WKStA.
Turquoise-Green adopted this idea in the governing pact, but Green Justice Minister Alma Zadić failed to find any results in her first year in office.
Finally, the ÖVP calls for faster procedures and better protection of the accused from any media bias. No one will object to that.
What is needed now is a constructive framework within which experts can be heard with an understanding of research practice and the necessary instinct. In addition, a government that finally makes decisions, with confidence, without foam at the mouth. And in the interest of the rule of law.