These 48 hours are tough: first, the waves are rising today during the special ÖVP session in Parliament. On Thursday, “key witness” Schmid has his big appearance.
days of thunder. A movie title made for Austrian domestic politics. Day 1, today Wednesday. Houses of Parliament. Special session on the ÖVP. 12 o’clock. The Causa Schmid is on the agenda. How will the ÖVP behave? Chancellor Karl Nehammer is in high demand. Will he specifically distance himself from the shadows of the past?
urgent questions
Other questions are more urgent. Namely, what should be asked? There will be a separate session about this this morning. One could not agree. The judiciary has prepared a catalog. Leg scraper etc. Everything that Schmid unpacked. ÖVP General Christian Stocker does not want to be limited by Schmid’s interrogation. Even if the judiciary is concerned about influencing investigations.
Wolfgang Sobotka will also be a subject. According to Schmid, he would have avoided tax audits at institutions near the ÖVP. The ÖVP responded with evidence that the president should exonerate and indict the alleged star witness Schmid. These documents are not enough for the opposition and the Greens.
Schmid as a witness before the Commission of Inquiry
Which brings us to day 2. Thomas Schmid, a crown witness with the potential to become a crown witness, speaks. What will he say? The parties position themselves. The SPÖ sings their hit, again performed by Club Vice Jörg Leichtfried. “New elections are the right and necessary way. The past weeks and days have also shown that there is no insight and no will to clarify in the ÖVP and also in the ÖVP chairman.
The SPÖ will also use the special session to vote on an anti-corruption package. These include tougher penalties and longer statute of limitations for corruption, greater transparency in federal government mail orders, greater transparency in advertising, the end of professional secrecy and the creation of an independent federal prosecutor’s office.
The NEOS are here. They want a deadline for the implementation of the announced tightened anti-corruption law.
Source: Krone
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