Last week, a team of more than 100 journalists revealed how secret companies manipulate public opinion.
The research for the "Storykillers" project, in which STANDARD was involved, has also awakened memories in Austrian politics.
Disinformation, dirty election campaign tricks and organized online campaigns are now well known in Germany.
STANDARD, SPIEGEL and international research partners under the direction of the investigative editorial team Forbidden Stories have so far not discovered any tracks of the revealed secret companies such as "Team Jorge" or "Percepto" to Austria.
However, the global disinformation industry consists of hundreds to thousands of companies - and some of their methods have been adopted by political parties and their advisors themselves, and some similar campaigns arise spontaneously, especially in right-wing extremist milieus.
Mayor tricked
One remembers, for example, the Mayor of Vienna Michael Ludwig (SPÖ), who was taken in by a false Vitali Klitschko: Instead of talking to the mayor of Kiev, Ludwig had a video conversation with a Russian "comedian" who is considered to be close to the Kremlin.
This had also happened to the Mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, shortly before.
Ludwig ignored the request to jump on the spot and shout “Long live the Ukraine” as well as the request to wave the Ukrainian flag.
The performance was uncomfortable nonetheless.
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Mayor Ludwig
Photo: Martin Juen / SEPA.Media / IMAGO
The incidents surrounding the Israeli election campaign advisor Tal Silberstein in the summer of 2017 were doubly dirty. His team, which worked for the SPÖ, had created Facebook pages for and against former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz under false flags, some of which also contained anti-Semitic messages spread.
Later, probably via an employee of Silberstein, internals from the SPÖ campaign got into the environment of Kurz, the conservative ÖVP, which distributed the leaked information to the media - which then of course rightly reported on the SPÖ's election campaign tricks.
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Israeli campaign adviser Silberstein
Photo: Gideon Markowicz / dpa
Again and again the Ibiza video is referred to as a criminal secret operation.
The secretly created video recordings, which were leaked to the Süddeutsche Zeitung and SPIEGEL three years ago, show how former Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache (FPÖ) met an alleged Russian oligarch's niece before the 2017 election and allegedly offered her illegal services in return help him to win the election.
However, there is no evidence that the alleged mastermind of the video, Julian Hessenthaler, and others involved had an order for the video or received any money for it.
And: Nobody forced the then FPÖ leader Strache to meet a dubious oligarch in Ibiza and make her promises.
Radical Opponents of Vaccination
At the moment it is mainly the group of radical opponents of vaccination that is launching hate campaigns.
One remembers the case of the committed country doctor Lisa-Maria Kellermayr, who was bullied and threatened for months.
Eventually she took her own life.
The extreme opponents of the Corona measures are also targeting politicians: In the course of the discussion about the obligation to vaccinate, statements made by her were “deliberately twisted, misquoted” and disseminated online, says the Minister for Europe and the Constitution, Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP). DEFAULT.
For example, that "it is now illegal to live in Austria if you are not vaccinated".
This false statement was then even discussed in the Federal Council, even if Edtstadler "never said or implied that".
Difficult »reconciliation«
Also because of such incidents, the initiative of Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) to initiate a “reconciliation process” around Corona is seen quite critically.
In particular, his statement that one had been "submissive to experts" caused a stir.
In any case, Nehammer wants to present his vision for Austria and give a keynote speech on March 10th.
From then on, we may face a long election campaign.
In the fall of 2024, the national council elections will take place in Austria.
This dispute will also get dirty, that can already be predicted today.
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Chancellor Nehammer
Photo: Christian Bruna/EPA
In any case, Austria had to redefine its relationship with Russia since its war of aggression against Ukraine.
This was the subject of a special issue of STANDARD last weekend.
The podcast »Inside Austria« is also about relations with Russia this time.
From Raiffeisen International to Red Bull – some Austrian companies are still doing »business as usual« in Russia.
In this episode of »Inside Austria«, we take a look at which companies do not want their Russian business to be spoiled by the Russian attack on Ukraine.
We want to know how they are using it to support Putin's regime.
And we ask what would have to happen for companies to withdraw from Russia after all.
Social media moment of the week
Europe and Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) has extensively criticized the handling of her ex-colleague Christine Aschbacher and her plagiarism affair (barnacles, “I will roll and do it”) on Twitter.
Professor Nikolaus Forgó has again dismantled the thread in the STANDARD.
Stories that we recommend to you today
Nehammer is planning a chancellor's speech and wants to present a "future draft" for "Austria 2030":
ÖVP boss and chancellor Karl Nehammer have "drawn lessons from the crises" and now want to "think outside the box of this legislative period".
The speech is scheduled for early March.
Nehammer wants to overcome Corona and initiate a reconciliation process:
the Commission should review the government's Corona decisions.
Chancellor wants to find a way out of the crisis and invites other parties to cooperate.
Best regards from Vienna
Fabian Schmid, Editor-in-Chief at STANDARD