According to an invitation list, eight of 13 people canceled the last two regular committee days on April 24th and 25th, including former SPÖ Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, former ÖVP Finance Minister Gernot Blümel and entrepreneurs Stefan Pierer and Siegfried Wolf. It is therefore unclear whether René Benko will appear.
Only 2 people come quickly
One of only two people who have definitely confirmed is Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens). He can be questioned on Wednesday followingnoon. The second commitment comes from a top official in the Finance Ministry. He will be available to answer questions from MPs on Thursday. Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (ÖVP), whom the Neos want to invite for Thursday, is not yet on the loading list. A corresponding motion was passed at a meeting on the rules of procedure on Wednesday, so there has been no response from Brunner yet.
There are also no confirmations or rejections for three other possible respondents. This included Benko, who was actually supposed to testify in March but was unable to do so. He then assured that he would appear before the U-Committee at the beginning of April, but ultimately canceled at short notice. His lawyer justified this in a letter with the media’s “(sensational) reporting with new allegations (almost) every day”, which made it impossible to get an overview of the allegations. It is therefore unclear to what extent the Signa founder has a right to refuse to testify. An appearance in the committee is “unreasonable” because there is a “massive violation of the accused’s rights”. Given this background, it seems unlikely that Benko will come next Wednesday as planned.
3.000 Euro Beugestrafe
A person who did not appear to provide information from the U-Committee on the “red-blue abuse of power” has already received a fine of 3,000 euros. This committee suffered from a flood of rejections, especially at the beginning, and one day of meetings took place without any surveys. This is now the case towards the end of the Cofag committee initiated by the SPÖ and FPÖ – next Wednesday and Thursday are the last dates on which people can be invited regularly. The SPÖ said that Wolf and Blümel had not sufficiently justified their rejection. A summons should be sent to them – just like to Benko – for the coming week. Persons providing information can only be brought before the U-Committee on May 22nd via an official presentation.
Image: (APA/HERBERT NEUBAUER)
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Image: (APA/HERBERT NEUBAUER)
The SPÖ and FPÖ submitted an application to the Constitutional Court (VfGH) on Thursday. In this way, they want to receive Wolf’s tax files, which the Ministry of Finance has not yet wanted to release – according to the application, the argument is that an external audit has not yet been completed. The Greens have requested further files relating to Benko and the Signa Group. The FPÖ is considering inviting people from the ÖVP environment to both investigative committees, as a spokesman told the APA. They would be asked regarding the funding they received from COFAG.
