After the billion-dollar bankruptcy of Signa Holding, the call for consequences is becoming louder. One of these is the call for a ‘cooling-off period’ for top politicians who want to move on to sensitive positions in the private sector.
FPÖ MP Christian Hafenecker clearly explains why such a “cooling-off phase” might be necessary: “It is quite clear that some people are using politics as a springboard.”
SPÖ MP Kai Jan Krainer also said that ex-Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer’s (SPÖ) multi-million dollar consultancy contracts “always seemed strange”, even though he was now a “private individual like everyone else”.
“There will be a good aftershock”
Krainer (SPÖ) is therefore in favor of ‘cooling off rules’ for top politicians. In any case, the image that is now being shown to the population after the bankruptcy of Signa and the consultancy contracts for ex-politicians that came to light is not a good one.
Hafenecker (FPÖ) adds: “A lot of taxpayer money has been destroyed. “This is the biggest economic scandal of the Second Republic and will cause a real aftershock,” he is sure.
“Benko is a shell player”
That is why Green MP Nina Tomaselli is calling for a Signa-U committee to clarify political influence and find rules so that such a disaster can no longer happen. It is clear to her: “René Benko is a shell player. The only problem is that he gambled with billions.”
According to Tomaselli, many people “fell for the alleged billionaire and whiz kid from Tyrol.” Now it is important to keep the taxpayers as harmless as possible.
“Multiple failures” that no one responded to before
Investigative journalist Rainer Fleckl explains the question of why no one suspected anything was wrong with Signa Holding as a “multiple failure”. There was always criticism, but René Benko, as a ‘people catcher’, apparently managed to convince investors to pump even more money into the company.
“Annual balance sheets were missing. “That should have been noticed much earlier,” says Fleckl. He calls on politicians to provide “framework conditions to prevent deliberate concealment” in the future.
Will Signa get a second chance?
The director of the creditor protection association Creditreform Austria, Gerhard Weinhofer, also sees a “need for political action”. In England, companies that do not file their balance sheets on time would be immediately struck off the trade register. Such a tightening is also conceivable for Austria to ensure more transparency.
It would be decided in the coming weeks how the continuation under our own management would work and how the restructuring should proceed. “And then the question is whether the creditors will give Signa a second chance. “It will be very exciting at Christmas,” summarizes Weinhofer.
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Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
