Do It For Me 😘
Finance minister Gernot Blümel's home was searched by anti-corruption authorities last week as prosecutors investigate possible links between his party, the ÖVP, and the gambling firm Novomatic
Servus!
On Thursday, anti-corruption authorities conducted a search of the home of Austria’s finance minister Gernot Blümel. For months, state prosecutors in the anti-corruption unit (WKStA) have been investigating ties financial and political between two political parties, the ÖVP and FPÖ, the international gambling giant Novomatic, and the partly state-owned casinos operator Casinos Austria. The focus had previously centered on FPÖ bigwigs like ex-party boss Heinz-Christian Strache and Peter Sidlo, an FPÖ appointee to the Casinos Austria board. Attention has now shifted to the ÖVP and its possible links to Novomatic.
Here’s what we know. On July 12, 2017, the head of Novomatic, Harald Neumann, sent a message to Blümel, who at this time was party boss of the Vienna ÖVP and a minister without portfolio in the city government. “Good morning, [I] have a request: [I] would need a brief appointment with Kurz (first because of a donation and second concerning a problem that we have in Italy. Do you believe this week would work? Best, Harald.” ‘Kurz’ referred to then-foreign minister Sebastian Kurz. The problem in Italy had to do with tax increases levelled to the tune of 50 million Euros.
Three hours later, Blümel texted Thomas Schmid, who back then held the post of secretary general in the finance ministry. “Please call Neumann back. Do it for me,” he wrote, ending his message with a kiss emoji. In the days that followed, Schmid reportedly called Neumann, according to the Standard, and discussed how the finance ministry could help Novomatic. Though it would not be out of the ordinary for the government to intervene internationally on behalf of an Austrian company, whether or not the above text messages represent a cash-for-favors scandal is now a line of inquiry for the WKStA.
Blümel vehemently denies all allegations. When appearing before a parliamentary subcommittee in June 2020, asked whether he had ever received a donation from Novomatic, he said, “I can personally rule out that that was an issue insofar as I can remember.” On Friday, his memory refreshed, Blümel categorically ruled out that the ÖVP nor formal associations linked to the party and/or Blümel like Pro Patria, Modern Society, or the Verein zur Förderung bürgerlicher Politik accepted Novomatic’s money. In an interview with the Krone published Friday, he also excluded the possibility that he would resign or temporarily step aside as investigations proceed. For its part, Novomatic denies making donations to any political party.
The allegations and Blümel’s response has created a political problem for the ÖVP’s long-suffering coalition partner, the Greens, who now find themselves tied to a finance minister named as a suspect in an anti-corruption investigation and to a party whose response has been to go on the defensive and raise hell about the independent investigative process itself. Breaking up the coalition, however, is out of the question. In order to maintain coalition discipline and on the basis that the finance minister is innocent until proven guilty, the Greens voted against a no confidence motion in Blümel in parliament on Tuesday afternoon.
And this could also become a political problem for Kurz too. Blümel has been part of the chancellor’s innermost circle since his modernization project, ‘the new ÖVP,’ was conceived. Both were rising stars in the Young ÖVP, the party’s youth wing. When Kurz was foreign minister, Blümel was head of the Vienna ÖVP. When the former became chancellor, Blümel moved into the chancellery as a minister; in Kurz’s second government, the latter was promoted to the finance ministry. He will not resign—for now. Kurz and Blümel are bound together. Unless Kurz decides to betray one of his closest political allies, the fate of the one will end up being that of the other.
Bis bald!
Yesterday was Faschingsdienstag, the Tuesday before Lent when Austrians mark the end of the carnival season by donning fancy dress and eating Krapfen, deep-fried yeast donuts filled with apricot marmalade. I wrote about Krapfen as well as other European pre-Lenten delights in this piece published in Eater.
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COVID, COVID, COVID
Restaurants, bars, and hotels, cinemas and theaters, gyms and swimming pools—all of which have been closed since mid-November—will remain closed until Easter, early April, at the earliest. A desire to keep case numbers stable and contain the spread of the British and South African variants drove the government’s decision.
From March 1, Austrian residents will be entitled to five free COVID-19 home testing kits per month to be made available through pharmacies. The tests are intended to be a complement to but not a substitute for those administered by healthcare professionals.
The decision to place Tyrol within a temporary cordon sanitaire due to the presence of the South African variant there has been hailed as a ‘success story.’ The seven-day incidence rate in the state has fallen to 76 cases per 100,000 residents.