A proposed crackdown on corruption, which would make the purchase of mandates in the national parliament, state parliaments and EU parliament a punishable offence, was discussed by the Austrian parliament’s justice committee on Wednesday.
Starting 1 September, it will be considered a punishable offence if a candidate obtains a favourable list position through a donation, benefiting financially from it or being aware of it.
“With this, the federal government is pushing ahead with its transparency offensive for Austria and is sending an important and confidence-building signal,” emphasised conservative ÖVP justice spokeswoman Michaela Steinacker.
However, standard party donations will be exempt. In parties that accept such benefits, the individual responsible for compiling the candidate lists will be subject to prosecution. Furthermore, candidates who receive a benefit, typically in the form of money, and pledge to perform an official act violating their duties will face immediate legal consequences.
Moreover, if a candidate requests an unlawful advantage or agrees to receive one, this conduct will be punishable once they assume office, regardless of whether the specific official task is eventually carried out.
This regulation applies to all individuals involved in election campaigns, including National Council and provincial parliament members, local councillors, and office holders who undergo application or selection procedures. Additionally, there will be stricter penalties for corruption offences, and individuals convicted of corruption will face a temporary loss of eligibility.
Criticism came from centre-left SPÖ justice spokeswoman Selma Yildirim.
“What the government wants to sell us here as a success is a backpedalling on an already very thin draft,” she stressed, adding that the punishment period for buying a mandate was shortened and the definition of a candidate has also been softened.
Austria was hit by several corruption probes in the past years, beginning with the Ibiza gate affair that led to the collapse of the government in 2019 when a secretly recorded video was published showing then right-wing opposition politician Heinz-Christian Strache (who became vice-chancellor) discussing corruption and media interference.
Sebastian Kurz resigned as chancellor after the start of the WKStA investigations in October 2021. The accusations date back to 2016 when he was still foreign minister. According to the prosecution, the Finance Ministry also used tax money to pay for polls that painted Kurz favourably.
As a result, Austria continued to fall in the 2022 Corruption Index of Transparency International, falling out of the Top 20 least corrupt countries, with its worst result since 2014.
(Chiara Swaton | EURACTIV.de)
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