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Chancellor advisor Antonella Mei-Pochtler is only aware of the Ballhausplatz project, that is, the unofficial campaign strategy that helped Vice President Sebastian Kurz enter the Chancellery in 2017, only through the media. “That was never a topic of discussion,” said the head of the BKA’s strategy department entitled “Think Austria”, which Kurz had already advised during the election campaign. Earlier, former President and Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner reported on the turquoise “donation rallies.”
In early 2017, at Kurz’s request, he organized expert discussions with the ÖVP political academy on the issues of location strategies and competitiveness, Mei-Pochtler described. She then participated in the coalition negotiations after the 2017 National Council elections as an expert on location issues. These were “mostly” general competitiveness issues, such as lowering the tax burden or cutting red tape. Specific company concerns were not an issue. “At no time have there been such conversations.” He also learned about “ex post” publications, “mainly from the media.” She “was not involved at any time.”
Mei-Pochtler said in her keynote speech that she was “a little shocked” that she was invited to the Ibiza-U-Committee, “because I have nothing to do with the Ibiza events.” Then he explained his field of activity in the Federal Chancellery. In March 2018, she asked Kurz to establish the strategy and planning unit “Think Austria” at BKA “and to bring her expertise in the field of strategy. Until 2017, she was Managing Director of Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
“Think Austria” is a small team of five people. “As a personnel unit, we report directly to the Federal Chancellor.” The area of responsibility includes the preparation of cross-cutting issues and international analysis for the Federal Chancellor in preparation for his international travels. “These strategic units exist in many other countries such as Singapore, Germany and France. These examples have also been looked at.
Mitterlehner had already given an idea of the change of power in the Popular Party to Turquoise in 2017 and the associated search for supporters in the election campaign. He does not believe that the laws could have been “bought” with his successor as party leader, Sebastian Kurz. So “stupid” that it can be shown that someone buys laws, one is “neither in Europe nor in the banana states”. Rather, the former ÖVP president spoke of a “biotope” made up of fundraising and a culture that allows politicians to listen to politicians. But he also “doesn’t want to criticize donation in general,” says Mitterlehner: “Not only do people who donate want to secure a personal advantage, they also want to donate to a political program.”
Since the end of January 2017, it was clear to him that he would no longer be the top candidate. The “donation rallies” that Kurz organized and which Mitterlehner also refers to in his book, he first noticed in August 2016. At that time he heard that there had been an event at the Carinthian Castle in Reifnitz with manager Siegfried Wolf and other entrepreneurs. Subsequently, other similar events occurred. These were organized by different hosts or companies, including a bank. You don’t want to attract these people to the media public, especially since you can’t exactly remember either, says Mitterlehner: “And I don’t have a laptop either, I’m over 60 years old.”
However, under his presidency, the party did not officially receive a penny in July. “It didn’t matter to me either.” In his opinion, this allows “three alternatives”. One of them is that donors have been contacted but not paid. One second that they paid for at a later date. The third possibility is that the donations were sent to a platform outside the party structure, according to Mitterlehner: “But we have to find out.”
