Stronach tops up party funds as Wolf rules out a role

Austrian Canadian businessman Frank Stronach has invested another 1,000,000 euros in his political party which he founded recently to fight in the next election in Austria.

According to a new law from the first of July any donations over 50,000 euros need to be registered with the Federal auditors. That means also any donations made by party members to their own party – which is the reason why Stronach registered his recent donation.

News of the fresh injection of funds follows on from the announcement by his former business manager that he would not be interested in standing as a candidate for the party in the next election.

Stronach had indicated that he would like to have Siegfried Wolf as his number one choice to lead the election list.

Speaking during a television interview he said that Wolf had not said no and had not said yes and was his number one choice.

But in an interview with the Lower Austrian newspaper the “Niederösterreichischen Nachrichten” (NÖN) Wolf said: “I am having nothing to do with a politically stupid fight like this. I left the company two years ago and I’m not going to make any more comments on such stupidity.”

Wolf was recruited two years ago from Magna by the Russian investment and property firm Basic Element (BasEl) owned by the multimillionaire Oleg Deripaska.

Before that he worked for Stronach for 15 years.