Corruption Process: Did Strache Help A Friend?

Right-wing populist Heinz-Christian Strache currently hardly plays a political role in Austria.

Once he sat at the levers of power.

A trial now asks: Was Strache bribed back then?

Vienna - Two years after the Ibiza video appeared, Austria's former Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache has to answer in a corruption process.

Before the Regional Court for Criminal Matters in Vienna, the question arises from today whether the 52-year-old helped a friend of his, a private clinic operator, to change the law in an advantageous manner.

This should be proven during the coalition negotiations with the ÖVP chats (“Which law do you need?”).

In addition, 10,000 euros are said to have flowed from the clinic operator to party donations to the right-wing FPÖ, whose chairman Strache was at the time.

The operator of the private clinic is on trial on suspicion of bribery.

Both defendants deny the allegations.

Four days of negotiation are scheduled for the process.

On the Ibiza video recorded in 2017, Strache appeared susceptible to corruption. The fact that the video became known in May 2019 was the beginning of the deep fall of the right-wing populist. He resigned from all offices. The coalition with the conservative ÖVP, which has been in power since December 2017, was also blown up by the video and its aftermath. Some time later, Strache announced his complete withdrawal from politics. But then he tried a so far unsuccessful comeback at least at the state level as the top candidate of a splinter party.

The clinic had been fighting for admission to the so-called private hospital financing fund (Prikraf) for several years. The fund also reimburses medically necessary services on a pro rata basis for those with statutory health insurance. The fund was then actually topped up by the ÖVP-FPÖ government by 14.7 million euros to a total of around 145 million euros. According to the assessment of the Main Association of Austrian Social Insurance Institutions, the private clinic specializing in cosmetic surgery with around 20 beds could expect around one million euros from the fund.

In October 2020, the owner of the private clinic gave his view of things to the Ibiza committee of inquiry. He was denied access to the health system. He then turned to a lobbyist close to the ÖVP and paid him tens of thousands of euros, but to no avail. He and Strache spent four days vacation together in his house in Corfu in 2016. The politician paid for the flight himself. He has known Strache for many years. He was the only one who took him seriously. dpa