VIENNA , May 18 (WNM staff) - According to media reports, Austria's Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache is under suspicion to have promised benefits in the event of government participation in return for election campaign assistance before the 2017 parliamentary elections. On Friday "Der Spiegel" and the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" reported on a secretly recorded video showing the head of the right-wing FPÖ in a conversation with a woman who is said to have been presented to him as the alleged niece of a Russian oligarch. Strache is said to have promised, among other things, contracts during the conversation, in which Johann Gudenus, the current leader of the FPÖ parliamentary group, took part. FPÖ General Secretary Christian Hafenecker rejected the reports.
The papers reported that the woman had stated that she wanted to invest around 250 million euros. She had indicated that this was black money. The magazine wrote that the takeover of the "Kronen-Zeitung" by the woman had been discussed during the interview. The newspaper could then have supported the FPÖ's election campaign. Besides Strache referred to hidden party financing by associations. "The association is non-profit, which has to do also nothing with the party. Thus you have no message to the audit office , quote the magazine Strache from the video that was published also on mirror on-line.
The Konen Zeitung, Austria's largest newspaper, reacted with outrage and suggested, that the scandal could even mean the end of the FPÖ. The FPÖ has a partnership with Vladimir Putin's One Russia party. Gudenus, who in the video also speaks Russian, is seen as the main contact person to Russia.
According to the SZ report, the woman was obviously a decoy. Both media claim that the video was leaked to them. It is unknown who had staged the scene for the meeting. SZ said in an ORF-interview that they could not disclose their source. The newspaper said, they had verified the video with experts. FPÖ representatives did not dispute the meeting, but said, it had been an evening with a lot of alcohol. The video shows the politicians acting with clear voices and without any signs of being drunk.
Die "Presse" reports with reference to intelligence sources, that the at action has been performed as a production of a western intelligence service. After all, the professionally worked out profile of the decoy and the technical effort behind it would point to professionals just as much as the fact that not only the villa on Ibiza, where the meeting had taken place, but also the luxury sleds parked in front of it had been rented in order to make the scenery appear perfect.
The newspaper "Der Standard" reported with reference to government circles that there would be a conversation between Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Strache. Kurz wants to make a statement on Saturday. The FPÖ assumes that Strache and Gudenus will have to resign, the newspaper continued, referring to "informed circles".