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The “Ballhausplatz Project”, a trip to Mallorca and the question of subsequent chats are today on the agenda of the investigation commission.
As of today Wednesday, in the parliamentary inquiry committee on Ibiza and gambling, everything revolves around the “Ballhausplatz Project”. That was the leaked title of the electoral campaign strategy that brought federal party leader ÖVP Sebastian Kurz to the Chancellery in 2017..
Stefan Steiner, one of Kurz’s closest advisers (who took a seat on the U Committee last year), and now ÖVP Secretary General Axel Melchior are invited to provide information.
The third person providing information is a close colleague of Thomas Schmid, head of the state holding company Öbag and former chief of staff and secretary general of the Ministry of Finance (he was on Committee U the same day as Kurz, as there is a suspicion there that his appointment at Öbag coincides with Peter Sidlo as CFO of Casinos Austria AG).
Ibiza – Mallorca – Berlin
Tomorrow, Thursday, the entrepreneur Gabriela Spiegelfeld will be interviewed. Organized campaign events with potential followers. On Tuesday, however, it made headlines for other reasons. As reported by the “Presse”, Kurz is currently being confronted by the business and corruption prosecution with the accusation that Spiegelfeld invited him to his home in Mallorca for a holiday in 2018 (keyword: acceptance of gifts prohibited). The Chancellor denies having ever entered the businessman’s house on the island and presented a hotel bill.
An employee of the cabinet of Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP), Daniel Varro, and a close colleague of Kurz also received a summons for Thursday.
A side detail: while the polls in Austria continue, the Berlin Court of Appeal has made a decision that is also relevant to the U-Committee: the alleged mastermind of the “Ibiza video”, Julian H., will be extradited to Austria . The 40-year-old man, wanted with a European arrest warrant, was arrested in the German capital in mid-December 2020.
(hell)
