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The SPÖ, the Freedom Party and NEOS demand that the department head “in view of the serious allegations” be available to answer the questions against him. the Special session it should now take place as soon as possible, he said in a joint broadcast on Friday. It is already scheduled for Tuesday, the debate will begin at 2 pm
And that although Minister of Finance Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) tried on Friday to defuse the cause of the party’s donation. He filed an affidavit that he was from Novomatic I did not make donations to the ÖVP or to associations close to the ÖVP. “I want and must counter defamation,” Blümel told a press conference that was scheduled on short notice in front of journalists in Vienna. He announced trials against other accusations.
However, his “affidavit” explicitly refers only to donations to the Vienna ÖVP and the four associations “ProPatria Homeland Association“,”Association for the promotion of civil policy“,”Modern society“just like him”Vienna City Festivals Association“.
Upon request, Blümel also ruled out Novomatic sponsorship “for the area for which I am responsible”. That he at least at a club party “We from Lower Austria in Vienna” was that sponsored by the Novomatic Admiral subsidiary it has nothing to do with himself. “That has nothing to do with donations to ÖVP Vienna,” said Blümel, who also dismissed any consideration in this context.
The Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA) is investigating Blümel in a section of the Causa Casinos. The current trigger is an SMS from the Novomatic boss at the time Harald neumann to the Minister of Finance today on July 10, 2017. In it, Neumann Blümel, at that time head of the Vienna ÖVP and not head of the city council, requested an appointment with the director of the ÖVP Sebastian Kurzto talk about a donation to the political party and support “about a problem we have in Italy.” Kurz was foreign minister at the time and raised money for the election campaign. The Novomatic was threatened with high tax demand in Italy.
Blümel did not want to judge on Friday why Neumann turned to him of all people: a non-executive Vienna city councilor. “I do not know exactly why he turned to me about it. He must have addressed someone whose cell phone number he currently has,” said Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz’s confidante at the time. “Helping Austrian companies as much as possible” is the government’s job. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in contact with companies in thousands of cases each year that need help in dealing with foreign authorities. “It is the daily bread of the Chancellery,” Blümel said.
Blümel then asked the Secretary General of the Ministry of Finance and now head of state that ÖBAG has, Thomas schmidto call Neumann – with the note “Do it for me.” As finance minister, Blümel is the largest gaming supervisor in Austria.
So far, it is unclear whether the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Kurz, acted on Novomatic’s behalf in 2017. He had investigated it at the Finance Ministry and “found nothing to date,” Blümel said. . I didn’t know about this from the Chancellery.
ÖVP: “There is no reason to doubt your official ability”
After the house search in Blümel became known, the ÖVP was after the close confidant of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. In the noon newspaper, Foreign Minister Karoline Edtstadler stated that “there was no reason to doubt Blümel’s ability to act.”
There are “false assumptions and assumptions in the room”, and furthermore, the economic and corruption prosecution has already investigated a large number of defendants, of whom only a small percentage have been convicted. Edtstadler excludes, like Blümel and other politicians before her, that the federal ÖVP received donations from gaming companies under Kurz; the question as to whether the associations affiliated with the party would have received such donations is left unanswered.
Identical names: is it short short?
Novomatic owner Johann Graf also spoke on Friday. Through his lawyer he made it known that he had never had contact with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz or Blümel (both ÖVP). As a result, Graf could rule out a meeting with Kurz in July 2017, on which the investigations against Blümel are based, among other things, because the WKStA order for the search of the house in Blümel in the Casinos case is based on a Graf’s calendar entry for July 25, 2017where a meeting with “Kurz” is noted. According to Graf’s attorney Christopher Cabinet, it should not have been about the Chancellor, but about a meeting with Martina Kurz, the member of the supervisory board at the time. As the Cabinet emphasized to the APA, the WKStA did not ask him or Graf about the date entry.
The WKStA justifies its suspicions and those related House search Among other things, with the fact that Blümel allegedly caused a meeting between Kurz and the head of Novomatic, Graf, through the intervention of the then CEO of Novomatic, Harald Neumann. In addition to the calendar entry, the WKStA sees a text message from Neumann to today’s finance minister dated July 10, 2017 as evidence. In it, Neumann asked Blümel to make an appointment with the then Foreign Minister and head of the ÖVP, Kurz, who was on an election campaign, to talk about a donation and support for a party “regarding a problem we have in Italy”.
International press reviews
Austrian Finance Minister it seems to make headlines in the international media with disproportionate frequency for such a small country. After the raid and interrogation of the incumbent Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) for suspicious party donations by the prosecutor (the main politician denies the allegations and the presumption of innocence applies), he is also prominently represented in international reports.
the “Financial Times” in English (“FT”, London) headlines with the words “Home of Austria’s finance minister raided by police” (police attacked the residence of Austria’s finance minister). Blümel is noted to be one of the closest confidants of Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP). The process is related to allegations of bribery by the prosecution by the “powerful Austrian gambling lobby”, in the current Novomatic case. Finally, the notorious story of the former head of the FPÖ and vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache in Ibiza is recalled: “Novomatic pays everyone” (“Novomatic pays everyone”).
“It’s going to explode soon,” headlines “Southgerman’s newspaper” (“SZ”, Munich) made a comment about the Blümel raid. “A house search on suspicion of corruption and infidelity, as carried out by Austria’s finance minister, probably led to resignation in other countries,” the first sentence of the article reads. “The person in question would want to avoid harm from the office, even if the presumption of innocence applies,” he continues. Investigations into possible corruption in the former ÖVP-FPÖ government were “extremely close to Chancellor Kurz.” “His former finance minister Hartwig Löger is also being investigated, as well as numerous party and political informants.”
