In addition to the Upper Austrian Seniors Association, which received almost two million euros from the “Support Fund for Non-Profit Organizations”, other organizations close to the ÖVP benefited from this Corona aid. Parties and their sub-organizations actually fall outside this pot. The response to a parliamentary NEOS query shows that there was almost no funding in the environment of the other parties. The ÖVP Academy (photo above) also benefited from Covid help.
The NPO fund, led by Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens), was established in the spring of 2020 to guide charities and other non-profit organizations as well as institutions of recognized religious communities and volunteer fire brigades through the Corona crisis.
Two million for the Seniors Association of Upper Austria
At the end of May, at the request of NEOS, it was announced that the Upper Austrian Seniors Association had received almost two million euros from the fund. Relatively small payments (less than 11,000 euros) were made to the Upper Austrian Economic Association, the Farmers’ Union, the Student Union, the Youth Party, but also to the Ring of Freedom Youth.
The Seniors’ Association of Upper Austria argued to the APA that it had not applied for funding as a party organization, but for the association of the same name, and that the money would not be used for party work. However, doubts arose in Kogler’s department as to whether the funding was legal. Checks have been outsourced at all organizations where such indications are present, there is a risk of redemption.
In a second question, the NEOS asked Kogler to which organizations of political parties in the other federal states money had flowed from the NPO fund. According to the response to the investigation, reported on Thursday by “ZiB 2”, organizations close to the ÖVP received money from the fund almost exclusively. As is known, the Tyrolean Seniors Association and sub-associations received almost 185,000 euros and the Carinthian Seniors Association and sub-associations received approximately 51,000 euros.
Also payments to young farmers and national youth associations
The Austrian Student Union received 18,500 euros. The association “Ab5zig – Wiener Senioren” has been asked for information about the extent to which it is legally part of the Wiener Seniorenbund due to the funding of almost 287,000 euros. Such clarification is also required with regard to the ÖVP sub-organization Boerenbond, due to payments of approximately EUR 853,000 to the young farmers’ clubs / rural youth Tyrol and approximately EUR 22,000 to the Vorarlberg rural youth association of young farmers.
Amounts of a few hundred euros or less than 10,000 euros also went to the student association of Burgenland, Lower Austria, Styria, Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Vienna and their respective sub-associations, as well as to the Youth Party of Lower Austria and its sub-associations, the Leoben Action Group and the one in Innsbruck.
“It is significant that almost only organizations close to the ÖVP have made use of this fund. The ÖVP continues to abuse the republic as an cash-and-carry shop,” NEOS mandated Katharina Werner told the APA. “This further unabashed grab for taxpayers’ money must not be without consequences. We call on the Vice-Chancellor to immediately demand the money back and fully make it clear why his ministry has paid out to party-affiliated institutions in the first place.”
Also applies to the Political Academy of the ÖVP
According to a report by the Ö1 “Morning Journal” on Friday, the Political Academy of the ÖVP also benefited from corona aid, namely through the operating company of the seminar hotel at the Academy Building. The Springer Schlössl GesmbH, which belongs to the academy association, received 185,000 euros in sales compensation and 200,000 euros from the NPO fund. Supervisory Board chairman and ÖVP mandatary Gabriel Obernosterer argued on the radio that the Political Academy “had nothing at all economically to do” with the hotel. “The nights the Political Academy is allowed to have here or there are in the minimum single-digit percentage range.”
The FPÖ reacted indignantly. “Not a week goes by without new abysses of the incomprehensible moral image of the ÖVP being exposed,” Christian Hafenecker, member of the National Council (pictured above) said in a broadcast. “The shamelessness with which black people encroach on public resources while driving the population into existential misery and endangering their prosperity is unprecedented.”
Source: Krone
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