Chat History Shows Nepotism In Austria’s Major Politics

‘I love my chancellor’: published chats shake up Austrian politics

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is facing uncomfortable times due to an investigation by the Austrian business and corruption prosecutor’s office. It’s about text messages from Thomas Schmid’s smartphone. He said Thomas Schmid has been the sole director of the state holding company ÖBAG, which manages Austria’s investments in companies, since April 1, 2019, and a close confidant of Chancellor Kurz.

As “Profil.at” writes, Thomas Schmid’s talks with Sebastian Kurz and others paint a “devastating” picture. They would show how jobs are shifted in the public sector, how higher levels are intervened when necessary. The aforementioned Thomas Schmid, who reports on this in addition to “Profil.at” and “Der Standard”, received his position on the board of ÖBAG “on the basis of a questionable offer”. The supervisory board, which is tasked with controlling the board of directors, was able to elect it itself.

Always in the picture: Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. However, he always acted as if he knew nothing, even in a parliamentary inquiry commission, in which truthfulness is applied. As “Profil.at” writes, the suspicion of false evidence is in the room.

The fact is that Sebastian Kurz is very well received on your network – “Profil.at” talks about “favorites” and “Buberln”. As the chats evaluated by the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor’s Office show, the 34-year-old is a total tribute. Thomas Schmid, for example, writes in two messages: “I love my Chancellor” and “Having you is a blessing.” It sounds similar when this Schmid is elected to a supervisory board by a large majority, when another chat partner says, “You are Sebastian Kurz from the supervisory board.”

“Profil.at” graphically prepared the central chats and published excerpts to “capture the atmosphere of this communication as well as the content.” The news magazine writes:

This talk with Jim Lefebre, the then spokesman for the Finance Ministry, is about a position on the supervisory board that Thomas Schmid received with a large majority of votes.

Thomas Schmid wrote this message to Sebastian Kurz, two days after his appointment to the ÖBAG board, which was highly controversial in hindsight. Chancellor Kurz today pretends he had nothing to do with it.

In the following talk, Christian Baha, sole owner and founder of the investment firm Superfund, and Thomas Schmid communicate. Baha congratulated Schmid on the position on the board of directors of ÖBAG (formerly ÖBIB) in November 2018, but did not officially become head until March 2019.

Thomas Schmid would actually have to officially apply for the aforementioned position as sole director of ÖBAG, but he only has a limited desire to receive a motivation letter, as this conversation shows. The chat partner Schmids has blackened “Profil.at”.

The following course features a conversation between Thomas Schmid and Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. According to “Profil.at” it is about the Catholic Church, which criticized the government’s asylum policy in March 2018. First, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, then Peter Schipka, general secretary of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference, issued critical statements . Soon after, Thomas Schmid went to Schipka’s office and informed him that the tax exemptions of recognized churches were being reviewed. In a chat with Chancellor Kurz, Schmid taunts the church official.

In this talk, Thomas Schmid addresses Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the content of the dialogue is the constitution of the supervisory board of ÖBAG, due to the legal quota, 30 percent women are required. Schmid suggests banker Susanne Höllinger and calls her, among other things, “controllable.”

Despite the criticism from the media, despite the fact that they gave each other jobs, despite the published chat history: so far, those involved have denied all accusations. In the case of ÖBAG, the supervisory board sees no reason for the dismissal.