The Vorarlberg opposition called for the resignation of the governor on Friday. The reason for this was the latest report on the affair surrounding the Vorarlberger Wirtschaftsbund. According to “Vorarlberger Nachrichten” (“VN”), Wallner is said to have solicited advertisements himself during a company visit and promised political accommodation in return. The governor dismissed the allegations as “outright lies”. “I’m not an advertiser for the Economic Association,” he emphasized.
Wallner wants to have the ÖVP’s preliminary organization checked by an external law firm. “Everything in the Economic Association must be examined,” said the ÖVP Landing party leader. He denied that money for the ÖVP election campaign was organized through the Economic Association. “I cannot understand the claim that we had advertised in order to finance the state party.” The allegations once morest the Economic Association have nothing to do with his politics, that is not his style, according to the state governor – more on that in vorarlberg.ORF.at.
differences and advances
It is not the first time that the governor has dared to venture into the affair. At the beginning of April, following several resignations, Wallner announced that he would be recruiting new staff for the Wirtschaftsbund and discontinuing the newspaper “Vorarlberger Wirtschaft”. But the latest details and inconsistencies have boiled up the affair once more.
Allegations once morest Vorarlberg’s LH Wallner
According to media reports, the ÖVP-Wirtschaftsbund is said to have given direct payments to the two state councils in Vorarlberg in recent years. The Vorarlberg governor Markus Wallner (ÖVP) is said to have known regarding it. Now more and more politicians are calling for his resignation.
For example, money from the Economic Association flowed to ÖVP state councils. They pointed out that the Economic Association had regularly taken over the costs for its officials, for example for a “drink”. The Vorarlberger ÖVP also stated that they had received around 900,000 euros from the Wirtschaftsbund since 2015. According to calculations by the tax office, it was a total of 1.5 million euros. Taxes were not paid either – more on that in vorarlberg.ORF.at.
The political advisor Hofer judges that the crisis management has not been successful. It is true that attempts were made to gain space and time with the resignations. On the other hand, the fact that the ÖVP and Wallner did not exactly know or name the difference was “extremely problematic”. The intention to wipe the slate clean is by far not an isolated case in politics. But if essential questions remain unanswered and you keep waiting for external tests, that is not consistent.”
Even more “uncomfortable” for Wallner
Wallner had admitted several times that he had watched for too long. In the past two or three years, one might see that an volume was building up that was “extraordinary”, which he considered “not healthy”. According to the tax office, revenue shot up in 2008. They culminated in 2019 with amounts of over 1.2 million euros with a total profit of the Economic Association of 615,000 euros. As a sub-organization of the ÖVP, the Economic Association has its own control mechanism. “I’m not personally responsible for everything that happens in a sub-organization,” he said.
Political expert Hofer sees the state governor already counted because of the latest report. “The air is already getting very thin,” he says in an interview with ORF.at. Hofer did not expect the dimension that the advertisement affair has now reached. Because it is quite “unusual” that the dominant media in a federal state take a critical to negative attitude towards the state governor. That might be even more “uncomfortable” for the ÖVP country chief.
Political scientist Peter Filzmaier had spoken of a political image of morality in view of the inconsistencies in the accounting of the Economic Association and the state party. “In Austria we have one of the highest party funding in the world,” he noted. “Regardless of whether it is criminally relevant or not. So, in addition to the high level of party funding, there was little transparent party funding here” – more on this in vorarlberg.ORF.at.
Affair radiates to Vienna
However, the Vorarlberg advertisement affair also has consequences for the federal ÖVP. The cause radiates far beyond the “narrow national borders of Vorarlberg”, says Hofer. “If there hadn’t been similar allegations in the past and if there wasn’t a sub-committee on these issues, the federal party might probably say: ‘The advertisement affair only affects Vorarlberg, it’s a regional issue.’ And the matter would not have reached these proportions.”
However, this is not the case. The ÖVP is trying to sit out the affair with silence so as not to make it even bigger with requests to speak. Because of the ongoing investigations once morest several ÖVP representatives and because of the U-Committee, the People’s Party cannot downplay this situation, says Hofer and adds: “One might have hoped that there would be something with the resignations of Sebastian Kurz and Gernot Blümel becomes calmer. But it’s kind of a ‘never ending story’.”
