Austrian leader calls crisis meeting after deputy filmed discussing deals

[rooster59]

Austrian leader calls crisis meeting after deputy filmed discussing deals

By Kirsti Knolle

 

Austria's Vice Chancellor and head of Freedom Party Heinz-Christian Strache addresses the media in Vienna, Austria April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

 

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called a crisis meeting late on Friday after two German newspapers published footage purportedly showing his deputy discussing state contracts with a potential Russian backer in return for political support.

 

Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache was filmed talking about the contracts with someone posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch in Ibiza in July, 2017, months before parliamentary elections, Der Spiegel and Sueddeutsche Zeitung said.

 

Strache did not reply to a request for comment on the video. Reuters was not able to verify the authenticity of the footage independently, and the German newspapers did not say how they obtained it.

 

Kurz planned to make a statement on the case on Saturday, a government source told Reuters. The opposition called for Strache to resign.

 

Strache is head of the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), which became junior partner in a coalition with Kurz's conservatives in December 2017 after winning 26 percent of the votes in the October elections.

 

The FPO's General Secretary, Christian Hafenecker, said the party's lawyers were evaluating the material.

 

Neither Strache nor the Freedom Party ever received or granted any benefits from the persons concerned, Hafenecker said in a statement.

 

"Since the video was obviously recorded illegally, we are also preparing appropriate legal steps."

 

The footage, parts of which were posted by the newspapers, showed Strache and party colleague Johann Gudenus with the woman in a room in what the newspapers said was a villa in Ibiza.

 

The woman said she wanted to invest several hundred million euros in Austria, according to the newspapers.

 

Strache and Gudenus discussed investment opportunities for her, including taking over a 50 percent stake in Austria's influential tabloid Kronen Zeitung and using it to support Strache and the FPO party in the election.

 

Gudenus was not immediately available for comment.

 

"If she takes over the Kronen Zeitung three weeks before the election and get us into first place, then we can talk about everything," Der Spiegel quoted Strache as saying in the video.

 

Strache held out the prospect of awarding her public contracts in road construction if she helped the Freedom Party succeed, according to the video.

 

Vienna prosecutors said they would study the reports and decide whether there was sufficient cause to open an investigation, a spokeswoman for the prosecutors said.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-05-18

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[jollyhangmon]

 

 ... yeah, a naziboy going down, excellent news for a change!

 

That rag he proposed to sell out to Ivan is crucifying that plonka as we speak ... ???????? ... it's hilarious ...

[Krataiboy]

Looks like a more sophisticated Austrian version of the execrable BBC Panorama "Tommy Takedown" attempt, using an agent provocateur.

 

Dirty game, politics.

[30la]

Politicians' intelligence is unlimited, they have not yet registered that it is very easy to be spied on.

[jollyhangmon]

 ... jaja, sure, the poor honorable politician, a simple soul lured into heinous ambush  - you'd find me slightly touched right now ...!

 

Factually, that one is not only criminally corrupt as obvious - almost like a Reverse Billionaire - but also way, way dumber than beanstraw, something he has in common with his voters, no doubt.
Just called them journalists names on that tape ('whores' amongst others, which of course is disputable as I'll be the first to concede) so they unsurprisingly are having a field day: 

 

Viennese Chainsaw Massacre, downright Comedy Gold as I might have already mentioned.

 

The dorks defense should sound pretty familiar: wasn't me, 'twas the alcohol and them bad, bad journalists ... l.o.l.!

==> Anyway, more importantly, as expected of course & happy to announce: mission accomplished, this particular p.o.s. is histry, quasi K.I.A., officially sacked as of a couple min ago. 
Criminal investigations commencing, naturally. 

 

 

source: local public TV