Following the business trips of Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP), the opposition is now questioning its outside advisers and traveling companions. His wife Katharina is said to have accompanied him to Berlin and attended the informal meeting with Wladimir Klitschko. The FPÖ speaks of a “ÖVP family business”, the NEOS demands transparency in the use of taxpayers’ money.
Nehammer was accompanied by his new adviser Kai Diekmann to Kiev and Moscow. He is the former editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Bild” and now head of the PR agency “Storymachine”. He is said to have been hired by Nehammer’s wife. That and the fact that she accompanied her husband on his trip to Berlin aroused criticism from the opposition. “The Chancellor apparently sees his office as a family business of the ÖVP, where his own wife and advisers hired by the ÖVP set the course. The Federal Chancellery and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have enough experienced diplomats who should be consulted here,” said FPÖ MP Christian Hafenecker. His party announced on Wednesday that it would ask several parliamentary questions.
Too expensive government apparatus
NEOS mainly criticizes the costs and lack of transparency. “Given the sharp increase in the number of cabinet employees in recent years, the extra deployment of external advisors raises questions about how the Federal Chancellery deals with taxpayers’ money. There is currently no lean government apparatus, nor ‘saving in the system’,” said vice club president Nikolaus Scherak. Taxpayers have a right to know what the ministries are using the money for. It is important to disclose all contracts with outside consultants. which has not happened to date.Not citizens should be transparent, but ministries, Scherak said.
Nehammer was in Berlin at the beginning of April and met, among others, the German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck and the ex-world boxing champion and brother of the mayor of Kiev, Wladimir Klitschko. A little later, he traveled to Kiev and Moscow to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Travel paid for yourself
According to newspaper reports, Katharina Nehammer paid for the trip to Berlin herself and made her own professional arrangements there. According to the journalists who traveled with her, she was not present at the chancellor’s official appointments, but was in the hotel bar in the evening for the informal meeting with Wladimir Klitschko. The Chancellery has not yet issued a statement on the current allegations.
Source: Krone
I’m an experienced news author and editor based in New York City. I specialize in covering healthcare news stories for Today Times Live, helping to keep readers informed on the latest developments related to the industry. I have a deep understanding of medical topics, including emerging treatments and drugs, the changing laws that regulate healthcare providers, and other matters that affect public health.
