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Austria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer
Photo: IMAGO / IMAGO/SKATA
It is a highly unusual step: the party finances of the conservative Austrian ÖVP are the subject of an independent investigation by auditors.
This was announced by the Court of Auditors.
The control authority suspects that the Chancellor's Party made incorrect statements about its advertising expenditure in the 2019 election year and exceeded the permitted seven million euros on the way to winning the election.
In addition, the Court of Auditors announced reports to the independent party transparency senate because of suspected improper party financing.
Already in the 2017 election campaign, the conservatives, under their then boss Sebastian Kurz, had spent almost 13 instead of the legally permitted seven million euros.
The Transparency Senate therefore imposed a high fine.
Other parties also exceeded the upper limit at the time, but not to this extent.
According to its own statements, the ÖVP only spent 5.6 million euros on the Austrian parliamentary election campaign in 2019.
That would be significantly less than the party claims to have spent on the EU Parliament elections that year.
That was "difficult to reconcile with the political reality of life for the Court of Auditors," it said.
In addition, the Court of Auditors had different internal figures from the party.
Not only the opposition reacted with criticism.
The Court of Auditors' report was "devastating," said MP Nina Tomaselli from the Greens, who govern with the ÖVP.
Chancellor Karl Nehammer promised his party's full cooperation with further investigations.
"We have nothing to hide from that time," he said on the sidelines of a visit to Tallinn.
til/dpa