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Corruption in Austria: Why has ORF’s editor-in-chief resigned?

Austria’s graft scandal continues to dismantle political and media careers as ORF’s editor-in-chief Matthias Schrom steps down from the role. Here's why.

Published: 9 November 2022 16:27 CET
Corruption in Austria: Why has ORF's editor-in-chief resigned?
A demonstrator wearing a mask with the face of Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and dressed as a prisoner in handcuffs is seen during a protest in front of the headquarters of the Austrian People's Party OeVP in Vienna on October 7, 2021, a day after Kurz was implicated in a media corruption scandal. (Photo by ALEX HALADA / AFP)

Matthias Schrom is no longer editor-in-chief of TV news at Austrian national broadcaster ORF after he resigned from the role on Wednesday (November 9th).

The move comes after Schrom was ordered to go on leave on Monday pending an investigation into claims he exchanged friendly notes with disgraced former far-right leader and vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, Der Standard reported.

READ ALSO: What are Austria’s Social Democratic Party’s plans to ease citizenship rules?

Roland Weißmann, Director General at ORF, said: “I accept Matthias Schrom’s offer to resign his position as editor-in-chief and thus bear the personal consequences of the published chats. 

“Even though Matthias Schrom’s management of his office to date has been impeccable and ORF TV has been very successful with millions of people in Austria over the past four years, it is precisely the great trust in our reporting and the uncompromising credibility of our journalists that make a step like this seem inevitable.”

What happened and when?

In February 2019, Strache contacted Schrom by email to complain about reporting on ZIB 24 and make recommendations about personnel at the media organisation, according to Der Standard.

The complaint was reportedly about negative statements made against the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), of which Strache was a member at the time. Schrom then responded and described ORF1 as “more left-wing” than ORF2 before advising Strache on tips for intervening at the station.

READ MORE: EXPLAINED: What happened at the Linz Halloween riots?

Schrom maintains that Strache’s requests were not met, either by adjustments to media content or in personnel appointments at ORF.

The latest revelations are related to the so-called “Ibizagate” corruption scandal that broke in 2019. It has since rocked Austrian politics, with leaked material revealing close links between top politicians, business people and the media.

The most high profile people involved in the scandal were Strache and former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Strache resigned as Vice Chancellor and was expelled from the FPÖ in 2019, and Kurz stepped down from politics in 2021.

For more on the Ibiza scandal, read this report by The Local.

Who else is involved in this latest scandal?

On Monday, Rainer Nowak, publisher and editor-in-chief of top newspaper Die Presse, also relinquished his day to day duties at the title. 

However, Nowak is implicated in chats with Thomas Schmid, former Secretary General for the Ministry of Finance. 

READ NEXT: EXPLAINED: Why is Austria so rich?

The Tiroler Tageszeitung reports that Nowak had aspirations to become the boss of ORF and appealed to Schmid in 2019 for support to make it happen. Nowak has since apologised for the communications and an investigation is

underway at the publication.

Schmid was a key ally of former Chancellor Kurz and is now a witness in the ongoing corruption hearings taking place against dozens of politicians and officials linked to Kurz’s time in office.

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POLITICS

How Austria’s centre-left SPÖ party plans to change integration policy

Asylum, migration, and integration policies are a much-debated issue in Austria, particularly as the country heads to its national elections in the fall. What are the centre-left SPÖ plans?

Published: 24 June 2024 12:12 CEST
How Austria's centre-left SPÖ party plans to change integration policy

National elections in Austria will take place this fall, and one of the most debated issues – certainly one that has been driving voters for the past few years – is the refugee and asylum policy debates. 

While the far-right party FPÖ has gained popularity with extremist views such as closing off Austria entirely for asylum seekers, the centre-right ÖVP has also presented tougher stances. The chancellor’s party has publicly defended the creation of “asylum centres” for processing outside of the EU borders. Chancellor Karl Nehammer has also fully supported the UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to “safe third countries”. 

A tougher stance on refugee policies has proved popular in Austria, and the centre-left SPÖ party has also seemed to lean toward stricter ideas more recently. However, since the party got a new leadership, a precise migration programme had not been presented yet. However, the issue was pressing, particularly following the party’s poor performance in the EU elections, when migration played a key role.

READ ALSO: How a change in the profile of asylum seekers is impacting Austria

So what are the party’s plans?

The SPÖ presented a new” masterplan” for asylum, migration, and integration. According to the SPÖ, the “Doskozil-Kaiser paper,” which has existed since 2018, has been “sharpened,” resulting in an “offensive paper” with approaches for action, said SPÖ leader Andreas Babler.

The aim was to “ensure balance and order” under “the premise of humanity”, said Babler at a press conference in Vienna.

The plan’s main points include faster procedures at the EU’s external borders, a fair distribution of refugees within the EU, and sanctions against countries that refuse to do so. With this, the SPÖ wants to reach a 75 percent reduction in the number of asylum applications. 

For example, the party leaders mentioned Hungary, where there were only 45 applications in 2023, compared to almost 60,000 in Austria. They said Hungary had to be persuaded to cooperate by exhausting all legal and political means.

The SPÖ proposes procedure centres along the EU’s external borders so that procedures can be completed more quickly and people do not hand themselves over to smugglers. The EU should set up “common centres for asylum applications”, for example, in embassies. 

People should only be distributed within the EU once the asylum applications have been assessed favourably. As a first step, cooperation between individual states could occur without the consent of all EU member states.

READ ALSO: When do Austrians think an immigrant is successfully integrated?

‘Integration year’ and deportation

The SPÖ plan contains an “extended mandatory integration year” that would ensure refugees get “German and values courses.” However, severe penalties, including deportation, would be imposed for serious offences or “repeated minor crimes.” 

Instead of mass accommodation, the SPÖ proposes small centres enabling better contact with the population. Women’s rights should also become a “central guiding principle for integration”. Women’s self-determination is the top priority, said SPÖ women’s spokesperson Eva-Maria Holzleitner.

The party reiterated that asylum is fundamentally a human right that should never be questioned. However, those who are denied their asylum request would be deported to their country of origin or safe third countries, the party advocates. 

READ ALSO: Who needs to take Austria’s integration exam?

Criticism from the right

Over the weekend, party representatives from far-right FPÖ and centre-right ÖVP have come out to criticise the SPÖ proposals. 

An FPÖ spokesperson said the plan is “pure PR policy” and that, in truth, the SPÖ had “always opened the door to illegal mass immigration under the guise of asylum”. The ÖVP said the proposals are just “headlines instead of concrete proposals for solutions”. 

In a press release, the party said that no capacity limit was presented, showing “that the SPÖ has still not realised that illegal migration cannot be countered by further squeezing the Austrian taxpayer”

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