Incompatibility Committee continues work over summer, SPÖ application for further work by the Justice Committee rejected
Vienna (PK) – A series of business order activities characterized the Assignment session, which followed today’s regular National Council meeting. The MPs voted unanimously in favor of a motion from all five parliamentary groups to ask Federal President Alexander van der Bellen to hold the 2023/2024 ordinary session of the XXVII. The legislative period of the National Council should be declared over at the end of July 9, 2024.
The conference is scheduled to begin on September 10th after the summer break. The next regular National Council meeting is scheduled to take place on September 18th. During the official meeting-free period, the National Council can be called to special meetings or extraordinary meetings at any time if a third of the representatives, the government or the Federal Council request it.
The Incompatibility Committee will deal with possible business activities of club chairman Kickl
The SPÖ suspects FPÖ club chairman Herbert Kickl of having submitted incomplete or incorrect reports in accordance with the Incompatibility and Transparency Act. MP Kai Jan Krainer therefore submitted a request from the SPÖ parliamentary group that the Incompatibility Committee should continue its work with regard to MP Kickl’s compliance with the provisions of the Incompatibility and Transparency Act during the session-free period. The SPÖ motion was accepted by a majority. Before the vote, a debate on the rules of procedure was held at the request of the SPÖ.
ÖVP MP Andreas Hanger said that the ÖVP would support the motion because there was clear evidence that club chairman Kickl may not have adhered to the professional ban applicable to club chairmen and the reporting requirements for MPs for secondary employment. In the committee investigating the “red-blue abuse of power”, MP Kickl gave only inadequate answers to two trust contracts, which suggested that he was still active in business as club chairman. It is also unclear whether private use of a company car represented a monetary benefit and thus income that was not reported. Club chairman Kickl should therefore be given “a second chance” to submit the relevant documents to the incompatibility committee and refute the allegations.
SPÖ MP Kai Jan Krainer also listed a senior position in the Think Tank Gmbh, the generation of commercial income from a property and the private use of a company car as cases in which there may have been violations of reporting and transparency obligations. Parliamentarians bear a great deal of responsibility and are therefore obliged to be particularly transparent with regard to assets and income, emphasized Krainer.
The Incompatibility Committee mostly works in silence, but it is of great importance, emphasized the chairman of the committee, David Stögmüller (Greens). He controls the additional income of politicians and thus helps to prevent corruption. When he receives relevant information, he has to take action. Stögmüller therefore advocated setting a committee date quickly in order to give MP Kickl the opportunity to clarify the issues mentioned in the inquiry process and thus create transparency.
NEOS MP Nikolaus Scherak said transparency is undoubtedly important. Although his group will agree to the committee’s continued work and thus enable clarification, he wants to raise the question of whether the chosen approach is helpful to the matter. A violation of the Incompatibility Act would be a serious matter, but from his point of view the evidence in the present case was very weak. In addition, the way in which allegations were made here and the passing on of information from tax files should also be questioned.
FPÖ MP Harald Stefan rejected the allegations that Kickl had received undeclared income as “baseless” and said that the application was due to the election campaign. The investigative committee found no wrongdoing on the part of club chairman Kickl, and the FPÖ is therefore looking forward to the meeting of the incompatibility committee with calm. The problem, however, is that the allegations regarding a company car arose after tax files were passed on without permission. Stefan saw a questionable approach here.
The MPs also voted on a motion from SPÖ MP Selma Yildirim to instruct the Justice Committee to continue its work during the session-free period. This did not find a majority.
No majority for the SPÖ’s requests for a deadline
The National Council had previously voted on a number of requests for deadlines from the SPÖ, which, however, did not find a majority. They concerned the payment of a training salary for nursing staff and the creation of additional training positions in the field of nursing (3921/A(E)), doubling the number of medical study places (1972/A(E)), the introduction of a legal right to a full-time childcare place (4035/A(E)), the provision of free lunch in schools and kindergartens (2845/A(E)), a package of measures for affordable housing (3961/A(E)), more income transparency to reduce unequal pay between men and women (277/A(E)), the permanent introduction of an inflation protection clause for new pension entrants (3918/A), the increase in the skimming of profits from energy companies (3976/A(E)), measures to increase the attractiveness of the police profession (4019/A(E)) and a committed peace and neutrality policy (3954/A(E)). (End of National Council) sox
NOTE: Meetings of the National Council and the Federal Council can also be followed via live stream and are available as video-on-demand in the Parliament’s media library available.
Questions & Contact:
Press service of the Parliamentary Directorate
Parliamentary correspondence
Tel. +43 1 40110/2272
press service@parlament.gv.at
http://www.parlament.gv.at
www.facebook.com/OeParl
www.twitter.com/oeparl