The Austrian Court of Auditors dismissed a legal case brought against the right-wing nationalist party FPÖ. The trial occurred after hacked emails from a Russian propagandist suggested that FPÖ officials had been bribed to propose legislation favouring Russia. The case was dismissed on February 13th.
The FPÖ denied all accusations declaring the trial as politically motivated and driven by the party’s recent electoral success and defence of Austrian neutrality since the war in Ukraine commenced.
The case was dismissed on procedural grounds, with the FPÖ denying that party officials had been paid in exchange for taking a stance in the Austrian parliament perceived to support Russia.
Austria’s second largest political party, the FPÖ, came under scrutiny for its past ties to Russia once the war against Ukraine began. Political opponents, on the occasion of the war, exploited FPÖ-Russo contracts to expose FPÖ as treacherous to national security and democratic interests. The FPÖ, for its part, has defended Austria’s neutrality since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, though has been criticised for past links with Russia.
The FPÖ’s relationship with Russia has been a point of vulnerability in the past: In 2019, alleged financial ties between senior FPÖ officials and Russian oligarchs proved to be a significant reason for the collapse of the Austrian coalition government. Even though the FPÖ’s Heinz-Christian Strache—formerly Austria’s vice chancellor—was cleared of corruption charges and links to Russian oligarchs in 2022, damage over his involvement in the ‘Ibiza Affair’ brought down the FPÖ-ÖVP coalition.
The trial concerned the nature of a 2016, five-year cooperation agreement signed between the FPÖ and Putin’s ruling United Russia Party. The FPÖ claimed that it had expired, and had never been legally binding. The 2016 agreement, nevertheless, promised stronger economic and political ties between the two countries, with the FPÖ at the time wanting to become an intermediary between the Trump White House and Moscow.
According to emails hacked by Russian propagandist “Sargis M,” FPÖ officials received Kremlin-paid junkets to Crimea and Moscow to meet with Russian assets. FPÖ representatives were then alleged to have written articles in support of Russian interests, as well as proposed laws to remove sanctions against Russia in the Austrian National Assembly.
The Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) has accused the FPÖ of proposing 30 specific pieces of ‘pro-Russian’ legislation since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2022. The FPÖ refused to disclose the details of the 2016 agreement; to them, the charges against the party and its officials are defamatory and baseless.
Speaking to The European Conservative, spokesman for the FPÖ delegation in the European Parliament Carl Gustaf Ströhm described the charges as spurious and motivated by the party’s recent election success:
These accusations are false and we strongly reject them. Such campaigns always follow the same pattern. The moment the FPÖ wins elections, as it did in Lower Austria a few weeks ago, or is in the process of gaining strength again, the media establishment, in cooperation with left-wing and liberal parties, goes into the dirt bucket to ruin our reputation.
Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the FPÖ has taken a pro-neutrality stance for Austria in the current conflict, with the party objecting to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressing Parliament. In fact, last month the FPÖ called for a nationwide referendum on lifting sanctions against Russia.
Austria is not part of NATO but partakes in sanctions against Russia along with the rest of the EU. Austria is under pressure to prohibit any Russian diplomatic presence at the upcoming OSCE meeting in Vienna at the end of the month for fear of espionage.
