Expensive "insider deals"?

FPÖ took aim at cash flows from ÖVP ministries

The Cofag committee of inquiry, which starts next week, is already casting its political shadow. In several parliamentary questions, the Freedom Party took a closer look at the flow of money from the black-green ministries. 

Even before any preferential treatment of billionaires by members of the ÖVP government is examined in the committee, the Blue Party used parliamentary questions to examine the cash flows that flowed from the black-green ministries between 2020 and 2023 according to inquiries to so-called "ÖVP donors", "ÖVP advertisers" and companies in which the ÖVP was more or less involved, at least in the last statement of accounts in 2020. The remarkable result: a whopping 6,714,844.54 euros are said to have changed sides in the form of advertising contracts and subsidies, among other things.

As no statement of accounts is yet available for the years 2021 to 2023, the actual amount of money received could be even higher, according to the Freedom Party. Particularly explosive: 6,549,724.76 euros, i.e. the absolute majority, flowed from ÖVP-led ministries, while the manageable remainder of 165,006.78 euros came from the Green-led ministries.

"Millions are obviously being siphoned off for the party via the ÖVP ministries. This did not end with the Kurz era," FPÖ Secretary General Michael Schnedlitz criticized to the "Krone". On Wednesday, the Freedom Party wants to make the so-called black "insider deals" an issue in parliament.