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For weeks, the president of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka, has been criticized in the Ibiza investigative commission. Your response to calls for your departure.
The president of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP), president of the Ibiza Investigation Committee, should declare himself partial and resign, at least that is what the opposition demands and even invited him to be an informant. The indictment: You have close ties to the Novomatic gaming group and therefore have personal sensitivities with people who are important to the committee. Specifically, the ÖVP-Nahe Alois-Mock-Institut, of which Sobotka is president, is said to have received several cash payments from Novomatic.
In the ORF “ZiB 2”, Sobotka commented on the accusations, out loud. The fact that the regulation, according to the moderator of the ORF, Armin Wolf, stipulates that informants cannot participate in the committee beforehand, triggered the first battle of words. Sobotka, whom he himself was invited to provide information on April 8, interprets this to mean that people invited one day cannot be there the same day; Wolf, on the other hand, can no longer participate until April. “That’s not true,” said Wolf, “unfortunately you’re wrong, it doesn’t matter,” Sobotka said.
“They use the same methods as the opposition”
They have been trying to get rid of him as unpopular president “for years and days,” Sobotka said. I would only make it easy for him “if I quit.” Wolf replied to this: “You can’t be much more self-conscious.” Which visibly upset the president of the National Council: “A member of parliament cannot be biased.” Furthermore, as president, he has yet to make a decision without a trial judge, which would then have to be biased, according to Sobotka.
The president of the National Council sees himself rather as a victim, “that’s bullying in the classic sense.” Regarding Novomatic’s money flow, the ÖVP man explained that everything was “clean”: Novomatic, as the country’s largest sports, cultural and social sponsor, also had cooperation with the Alois Mock Institute. A new duel of rage unleashed a graph that, according to Wolf, showed cash flows in the Novomatic environment. “The list is wrong,” Sobotka said. “They use the same methods as the opposition.”
“Are we investigating Ibiza and the consequences of Ibiza in committee, or are we investigating the Alois Mock Institute?”
When Wolf was still working at the Alois Mock Institute, which Sobotka described as a “bourgeois think tank,” the shreds flew verbally. “That is not true either,” said Wolf, who noted that the institute does not employ scientific staff or publish scientific papers. “Are we investigating Ibiza and the aftermath of Ibiza in committee, or are we investigating the Alois Mock Institute?” Said Sobotka.
As a politician, he had “no other option” but to follow the law and had been sworn in. “What do you want?” Sobotka went on the offensive. The president of the National Council ruled out that he would resign as president of the commission: “It would be easy to withdraw and back down.” But it would also be an admission, according to Sobotka, “you smear someone for so long” with accusations until the latter says I’m not doing that to myself anymore. “According to the constitution, I would like to end my position,” Sobotka said. You had to create a “structure” out of the “chaos” that would be worth the committee, after all it costs 100,000 euros a month.
