The party is acting “at the call of a despotic warmonger,” said club chairman Sigrid Maurer in a press conference on Friday. Party leader Herbert Kickl wants to convert Austria into a satellite state of Russia. Maurer identified “betrayal” of Austria and also mentioned a possible connection to ex-Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek, who fled to Moscow.
“Unacceptable machinations”
Maurer spoke of “absolutely alarming, ultimately unsustainable machinations by the Freedom Party as Putin’s assistants.” She specifically recalled the friendship agreement between the FPÖ and Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party signed at the end of 2016. There are indications uncovered by the Bellingcat platform that Marsalek, who was also at the center of the Ott case, was in Moscow at the time of the signing.
And: the contract had obviously been negotiated months beforehand and there had been a decision by the FPÖ party leadership. Maurer pointed out that Norbert Hofer was also represented there, at a time when he was also in the runoff once morest Alexander Van der Bellen in the federal presidential election.
“Betrayal of the Austrian people”
“You have to let it melt in your mouth,” said the Green Club chairwoman literally: “Someone is applying for the highest office in the Austrian state, he wants to become Federal President, Commander-in-Chief of our army, and this person is part of the federal executive board of the Freedom Party a treaty of friendship with a foreign power, with a despotic regime, with a dictator. You have to call it what it is: it is betrayal, it is betrayal of the Austrian people.”
With Marsalek and Herbert Kickl as Interior Ministers in the Turquoise-Blue era, Maurer, citing experts, identified a “real destabilization campaign once morest Austria”, which culminated in the raid on the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism (BVT) in 2018, based on statements from three witnesses clear Russian connection. It is regarding the potential infiltration of Austrian secret services by Russian agents, which is why they have also called for the National Security Council to be convened. When asked, the club chairman also spoke of references in chats to money flows from Russia. Kickl will also have to answer these questions.
Hafenecker sees a “green fairy tale hour”
The FPÖ reacted disparagingly to the criticism. General Secretary Christian Hafenecker spoke in a broadcast of a “green fairy tale hour” and emphasized that it was not the FPÖ, but the ÖVP and the Greens that betrayed the people. In the same broadcast, Hofer emphasized that he had not been able to discover “a certain Jan Marsalek” when the friendship agreement was signed.
The Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozev, who works for Bellingcat and had to leave Austria last year because of Russian activities in which Egisto Ott was allegedly involved, spoke on Friday in the Ö1 “Mittagsjournal” regarding extremely traumatizing experiences. It is good to see that Austria is now trying to clear the air when it comes to secret services and regain international trust. However: “I fear that this newly gained trust can quickly be lost if there is a change in the political landscape.”
Investigations “in all directions”
According to Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP), Russia’s role in the BVT raid under Kickl is currently being investigated in the Ott case. This question is part of the almost 100-page arrest warrant, said Karner on the sidelines of a press conference, and here “the investigation is being carried out at full speed in all directions”, he also referred to the friendship agreement between the FPÖ and Putin’s party “United Russia”.
