Compliance is the strict demarcation of politics and business in order to avoid any influence.
Austria was not considered a model country in this regard - according to the Ibiza Committee less than ever.
Vienna - one hand washes the other.
The Ibiza Committee of Inquiry of the Austrian Parliament has examined party donations, political positions and close relationships between large companies and government parties more intensively than ever before.
"The country's reputation is certainly in tatters," sums up the political advisor Thomas Hofer at the end of the committee's investigations on Thursday.
What began with the publication of the Ibiza video a good two years ago has now resulted in a considerable dent in the image especially for Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP).
The chats on the Chancellor's cell phone published in the committee gave the impression that, contrary to his promise of a new political style, the 34-year-old had not broken with a system of fluid boundaries between business and politics, said Hofer.
Popular petition to fight corruption
The advance of prominent Austrian lawyers for a popular petition to fight corruption is also a clear sign that the committee has revealed weaknesses in the country's political system. It is necessary to modernize anti-corruption laws, strengthen the independence of the judiciary and regulate party donations, believes Martin Kreutner, co-initiator of the popular petition and former head of the International Anti-Corruption Academy. If this opportunity is not used, then there is a risk "that at some point the rule of law, democracy and the separation of powers will be called into question," he told the German press agency.
"Novomatic (note: a gaming company) pays everyone", this sentence - vehemently denied by the company - from ex-Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache in the Ibiza video about the possible influence of corporations on politics accompanied the committee as a general suspicion.
Strache had also spoken in the strip about how media can be controlled, infrastructure projects politically controlled and parties covertly financed.
The verdict is due to fall in August
In the course of the various Ibiza investigations, Strache's cell phone was also confiscated. According to the public prosecutor's office, the news found therein shows that the former leading right-wing populist in Austria helped a friend and clinic operator to change the law against party donations. Strache denies this. A judgment is to be made in August. "A conviction would already be a sign that everything is no longer working as it has been in Austria", said Hofer.
The real loser of the sometimes bitter disputes in the committee is not the right-wing FPÖ, but the conservative ÖVP von Kurz.
Kai Jan Krainer, the Social Democratic parliamentary group leader in the U-Committee, also sees it that way.
"The fact that the turquoise (note: ÖVP) system forms a state within the state is the greatest insight," he told the dpa.
Kurz and his confidants would have passed their own ÖVP ministers into their ministries.
In addition, the ÖVP has made itself dependent on large donors from the economy.
Chancellor shortly before the indictment
Kurz is now facing possible charges because of a possible false testimony about a position being filled before the committee.
Finance Minister Gernot Blümel is also targeted by the public prosecutor.
Both deny the allegations.
Thomas Schmid, a confidante of Kurz und Blümel, became head of the state holding ÖBAG - and recently gave up the post after chats and details about his order became known.
Kurz and the ÖVP have repeatedly criticized the way the committee works.
It is not about clarification, but about persecuting political opponents.
“Every word in one's mouth is turned around and followed up with advertisements.
In my opinion, this is not the best political culture that has emerged here, ”the Chancellor told the portal heute.at.
The Chancellor has left feathers.
"This also applies at the international level, especially for his role in the concert of the European people's parties," says Hofer.
Kurz has lost confidence in the country itself.
In the trust index of the institute OGM and the news agency APA, which has been collected for many years, it slipped from first to fourth.
"The chat affair in particular hurt him," says OGM boss Wolfgang Bachmayer.
According to the pollster, the chancellor's disparaging remarks about the church and the attacks on the judiciary also had a negative effect.
"It was like looking through the keyholes in the politicians' doors."
Survey numbers declined significantly
As a result, the conservative ÖVP is now in various surveys with about 33 percent, well below the election result of 2019. The right-wing FPÖ, on the other hand, who distracted from itself in the committee by offensive instead of defensive, is again around 18 percent. The committee officially ends on September 22nd with the parliamentary groups' final reports.
A continuation of the committee called for by the opposition would miss the reality of people's lives, says Bachmayer. "The mood is turning." The question of the citizens is now whether politics should not turn to other issues. The foreseeable debates are about immigration, deficiencies in integration, the energy turnaround and its costly consequences, and last but not least, inflation in general. "We will get a discussion under the motto: How do you get along with your income?" Said Bachmayer. dpa
