The chairman of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP), filed the request for fines to be imposed against Thomas Schmid for refusing to testify 27 times in the ÖVP’s U-committee at the Federal Administrative Court on Wednesday, as was reported on Saturday. announced.
During Schmid’s interrogation in the U Committee on November 3, Second President Doris Bures (SPÖ) chaired the meeting because of Sobotka’s trip abroad. The President of the National Council has now submitted the application for a fine to the Federal Administrative Court. He is asking for a reprisal “of an appropriate amount for the continued unjustified refusal to testify in relation to 27 questions,” the Ö1 “Morgenjournal” reported on Saturday.
Referring to the criminal case against him, the former secretary-general of the Ministry of Finance and ex-ÖBAG boss had not answered any question from the MPs, not even whether he was a member of the ÖVP.
The Federal Administrative Court has four weeks from receipt of the request to make a decision. It must also be made clear how high the fine will be. The rules of procedure threaten a fine of up to 1,000 euros for unjustified refusal to testify. But it is not clear whether this applies per question or per committee day. There is no case law on this either. For this reason, Sobotka states in his letter, “it is requested that the fine be applied without numerical determination”.
Poll: majority for Sobotka’s resignation
However, in a recent inquiry, a majority was in favor of Sobotka, who had been charged with corruption by Schmid before the prosecutor’s office. According to the survey published by “profil”, 55 percent of the 800 respondents were in favor of the resignation of the chairman of the National Council. 17 percent thought he could stay in office. Schmid, the former Secretary General of the Ministry of Finance and ex-ÖBAG boss, had accused him in his statements to the WKStA of intervening in two tax cases involving ÖVP institutions – which Sobotka dismissed as “lies”.
Source: Krone
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