Security Council meets

Causa Ott: espionage affair draws wide circles

New suspected agent in the BVT was uncovered

(Bild: Krone KREATIV, stock.adobe.com)

The affair surrounding suspected Russian spies at the Austrian Office for the Protection of the Constitution is increasingly developing into the biggest espionage scandal in recent history. The revelations have the potential to become a defining issue in the national election campaign. Politicians are correspondingly agitated. On Tuesday evening, the National Security Council discussed the "serious criminal allegations". One person was missing: Herbert Kickl. The FPÖ leader sent Secretary General Christian Hafenecker.

The party representatives march into the meeting, which takes place in the bug-proof room in parliament, with a strong sense of urgency. The chancellor's party, the ÖVP, tries to hang the matter on the FPÖ alone. The People's Party has long described FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl as a "security risk" and now sees itself 100 percent vindicated.

Chancellor Nehammer convened the meeting at the request of the Greens

(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

FPÖ points the finger at the ÖVP
The espionage thriller will also be a major topic in the upcoming sessions of the second committee of inquiry into the red-blue abuse of power. Kickl will be questioned as a witness. ÖVP parliamentary group leader Andreas Hanger claims to have found evidence that Kickl, as Interior Minister at the time, assigned a central role in the reorganization of the secret service to suspected spy Egisto Ott after the raid on the BVT. The FPÖ rejects this and repeatedly emphasizes that the espionage cell in the BVT was created under ÖVP Interior Minister and BVT head Peter Gridling, who is considered close to the ÖVP. Gridling was brought into the BVT by Günther Platter, who later became governor of Tyrol.

SPÖ does not trust Chancellor Nehammer
For the SPÖ, the FPÖ and ÖVP are equally involved in the affair. "We do not trust Chancellor Karl Nehammer. His party has been in charge of the Ministry of the Interior for decades and handed it over to Kickl. Nehammer himself approved Kickl's destruction of the BVT in 2018. The National Security Council has degenerated into a staging stage," says security spokesman Reinhold Einwallner to the "Krone".

SPÖ security spokesperson Reinhold Einwallner

(Bild: APA/EVA MANHART)

Commission should examine constitutional service
He is calling for a new Zerbes Commission to be convened to examine whether the new DSN intelligence service, unlike the BVT, is secure against such espionage networks. The SPÖ has pushed through a parliamentary control commission in the intelligence service reform, which can review the DSN at any time. Ingeborg Zerbes is currently the chair of this commission, which has already investigated the failure of the Ministry of the Interior in the Vienna terrorist attack. "Unlike the Federal Chancellor, the commission has our trust and is the path we will take to make Austria safer," says Einwallner.

Pink Party insists on new security strategy
At the meeting, the Neos party will table a motion to update Austria's security strategy. In the current strategy from 2013, Russia is still described as an essential and strategic partner of Austria, criticizes Secretary General Douglas Hoyos. The governing parties have not yet been able to agree on all the contents of a new strategy. According to reports, there is a dispute over energy security.

The Greens are also focusing on the FPÖ's relations with Russia. For Meri Disoski, leader of the Green parliamentary group in the U Committee, the FPÖ is "a danger to our democracy".

Pressekonferenz in Wien

Innenminister: „Lückenlose Aufklärung“ nötig

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) emphasized at a press conference in Vienna early on Tuesday evening: "There are serious allegations in the room. Espionage, betrayal of Austrian state secrets, selling information to Russia and many other criminal charges such as abuse of office."

The police are investigating "with the utmost consistency" and need "new and modern means to successfully and completely clear up these serious criminal allegations (...)". Karner thanked Nehammer for convening the Council of Ministers. After about ten minutes - including questions from journalists - the press conference was already over.