According to Herbert Kickl

Blue showdown with Kickl and Co. in the U-Committee

Herbert Kickl is quick-witted during his questioning.(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

The questioning of FPÖ party leader Herbert Kickl in the committee on the "red-blue abuse of power" degenerates into a mud fight. After five hours, nerves are frayed. Kickl lashes out at the ÖVP and makes a startling statement towards the end of the questioning: Karl Nehammer had asked him as Minister of the Interior to take his wife into the ministry because she had not felt comfortable as spokesperson for National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka.

Neos, SPÖ and ÖVP are persistently questioning Kickl about a company in Carinthia in which he is said to have been a silent co-owner. They rely on a trust agreement from 2010, but Kickl initially refuses to answer. After a lengthy discussion between his confidant and the trial judge and the threat of a penalty for defending himself, he did testify. Under an obligation to tell the truth, he said that he had never owned the property where the company was based and had never earned a cent from it. The trust agreement had never been realized, according to Kickl.

"Think tank" affair
This case concerns the "Ideenschmiede" affair. The agency is said to have financed the FPÖ through "kickback payments". Herbert Kickl was neither a suspect nor a defendant in the court proceedings. The committee of inquiry into red-blue abuse of power was actually intended as the ÖVP's political counter to the COFAG committee set up by the FPÖ and SPÖ. However, as reported several times, the ÖVP has so far focused exclusively on the Freedom Party in the summonses and questioning. The revelations in the espionage affair surrounding Egisto Ott and the blue wires of the "Russian spy" Jan Marsalek are causing additional controversy in the committee. The "blue showdown" is taking place today. 

What has happened so far
The questioning began on Thursday morning with the former head of communications for the FPÖ. His questioning focused on the FPÖ's contacts with the platform "unzensuriert.at", where the respondent previously worked. Together with the platform, the FPÖ "deliberately spread fake news", ÖVP parliamentary group leader Hanger is certain, and wants to prove this with a video. Chats revealed by the "Krone" show how the FPÖ fed right-wing media with money. 

The respondent rejected this. The FPÖ questioned its party member about the allocation of posts in the Ministry of the Interior. The Freedom Party member replied that he had come under political pressure from Johanna Mikl-Leitner, governor of Lower Austria, in connection with the appointment of the director of the Lower Austrian police force.

Herbert Kickl launched an all-round attack on the ÖVP.(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

The former deputy office manager of the former Secretary General in the Ministry of the Interior, Peter Goldgruber, was summoned after the former blue communications chief. Goldgruber is known to have recused himself during his questioning in the committee.

 The following points were or are the focus for the parties:

• ÖVP committee chairman Andreas Hanger wants to scrutinize the FPÖ's contacts with Egisto Ott. He wants to have evidence that the FPÖ and Interior Minister Kickl promised the then suspended intelligence officer a high-ranking position in the restructured secret service after the raid on the BVT. The FPÖ denies this.
• Christian Hafenecker, FPÖ Secretary General and "U-Ausschuss expert", was his usual aggressive self at the beginning of the questioning day and told Hanger: "If I want to hear funny news, I go to the cabaret Simpl. Even Mr. Niavarani is funnier there than Mr. Hanger."
• The SPÖ wants to address the blue media policy. The red women's leader Eva Maria Holzleitner wants to take a closer look at "entanglements with Carinthian media agencies".
• For Meri Disoski, the Green parliamentary group leader on the committee , a "picture of infiltration" is emerging, the FPÖ is a party of "puppets of a puppeteering dictator called Putin, and puppets dance the way Putin wants them to".
• NEOS parliamentary group leader Yannick Shetty wants to shed light on "whether Kickl was also personally enriched".

Read about the day's events here!

Due to many interruptions during the questioning, there were delays. The questioning of Reinhard Teufel was scheduled for 5 pm, but had to be suspended due to time constraints.