Partial success for the SPÖ in the fight for cheap rental of an Attersee building to the Socialist Youth: According to the administrative court, this is not a party donation, a fine of 45,000 euros was lifted. Further penalties could also be traced back.
In the years-long legal dispute about allegedly inadmissible gifts to political parties, the Administrative Court (VwGH) now at least partially agrees with the SPÖ. In terms of content, it concerns several plots on the Attersee, which the federal state of Upper Austria rented out cheaply to the socialist youth. The Court of Audit and the Party Senate in the Chancellery judged this as an impermissible party donation. The highest judges see that differently in at least one case and have lifted the sentence.
Fine of 45,000 euros lifted
The Europacamp is located on several contiguous plots and the highest courts do not regard the transfer of one of these plots as a party donation. Therefore, the court annulled the entire fine of 45,000 euros. This lifted fine applies for 2017. However, the Independent Party Transparency Senate (UPTS) in the Chancellery for 2018 and 2019 imposed further fines of the same amount on the SPÖ, which is now also shaking.
Decision based on history
The administrative court justified its decision, published on Thursday, with the history of one of the properties: the original owners had expropriated the property (expropriated during the Nazi era and later returned) with the express demand that the state of Upper Austria owned by the Socialist Youth. And that for 99 years and for a symbolic rent. Therefore, the highest court ruled that the state had not voluntarily concluded the lease with the SPÖ youth. As a result, the cheap rent was not counted as a party donation.
It was initially unclear whether and to what extent the SPÖ could still be fined for the other properties of the “Europacamp”. With regard to the other parts of the property, from the point of view of the highest court, there is “no doubt that the Land of Upper Austria voluntarily entered into the lease in 1962”. neither the Chancellery nor the Federal Administrative Court had determined the market value of these parts of the property in the previous proceedings, and therefore the Administrative Court quashed the entire sentence.
Source: Krone
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