Own U-committee?

Why the state police are being targeted by politicians

The SPÖ wants to scrutinize the appointments of Konrad Kogler and Franz Popp.(Bild: Dieter Hoeller, Reinhard Judt, Michael Gruber, P. Huber, Krone KREATIV)

In his role as Minister of the Interior, the current FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl opposed the appointment of Franz Popp as Lower Austria's regional police director. After Kickl had to vacate his post, partly due to political pressure from the ÖVP Lower Austria, Popp was given the job. Now the SPÖ is taking aim at the state police force - and is scrutinizing a second appointment. A special U-committee could even be set up. 

Chats, chats, chats - in connection with the committee of inquiry into the "red-blue abuse of power", messages between the old FPÖ leader and the new FPÖ leader, Heinz-Christian Strache and Herbert Kickl, became known. At the time, they chatted about Johanna Mikl-Leitner's demand - implemented after Kickl's time in the Ministry of the Interior - to install Franz Popp as the new state police director of Lower Austria. Popp is considered qualified and popular. However, his application had a "catch".