Lawsuit for abuse of office

Blue “black building”: dispute now ends up in court

"It would have been abuse of office if I had done nothing," says local chief Kröpfl, who takes a diametrically different legal view to the public prosecutor.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Klaus Schindler, Gerhard Bartel)

Now the Krems public prosecutor's office is getting serious: ÖVP mayor Günther Kröpfl has been dealing with the construction case of a citizen close to the FPÖ for years. The public prosecutor found abuse of office and brought charges. However, the mayor believes he is clearly in the right - the appeal against the complaint is now being dealt with by the Higher Regional Court.

As mayor, you are the building authority of first instance in the vast country. This is also the case if the building applicant sympathizes with a party other than that of the head of the village, as in a case in the municipality of Pölla in the Zwettl district. Shortly before the election, the public prosecutor's office reportedly brought charges against the head of the municipality, Günther Kröpfl, for abuse of office.

According to the indictment, the head of the municipality had deliberately made untruthful statements in notices and by reporting to the district authority. In addition, he had harmed the building applicant "in his right to be heard as a party".

The stone of justice started rolling
A building stop notice and a demolition notice for a wall had set the ball rolling in 2023. The building applicant, who stood for the FPÖ in the municipal elections, fought back. Kröpfl had already issued a building permit for a stone enclosure in 2020, "but never for a formwork stone wall", he countered. It would have been abuse of office if he had not acted despite knowing about the illegal construction. The appeal against the indictment has already been lodged - now the higher regional court must decide whether it is admissible.

Severe consequences
If Kröpfl is sentenced to a conditional prison sentence of more than one year or an unconditional prison sentence of more than six months, he will lose his office as mayor. The penalty range for the accused abuse of office is between six months and five years' imprisonment. If he is convicted, there could also be consequences for his job in the army. So far, Kröpfl has been considered legally blameless, which would normally argue for a more lenient sentence in the event of a conviction.