A provincial high court has annulled a controversial verdict against a leading right-winger. Carinthian Freedom Party (FPK) head Uwe Scheuch, the deputy governor of Carinthia, was found guilty of unjust enrichment by the Provincial Court of Klagenfurt last August. Scheuch was accused of offering political interference in exchange for a donation to his party. A […]
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) analyst Alois Strasser has warned that a crisis worse than the most recent one could “totally demolish” Austrian finance institutes’ capital. Strasser – who is in charge of the US American rating agency’s economic estimations for the Austrian economy – told Die Presse today (Fri) that the Republic of Austria could […]
Political scientist Anton Pelinka has reacted critically to the government’s plan to reduce the parliament. Werner Faymann’s Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP) of Vice Chancellor and Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Spindelegger announced earlier this month that the number of federal parliament delegates would shrink by 18 to 165 after next year’s […]
Volksbank International (VBI) will continue to have its headquarters in Vienna, the vice chairman of the finance institute’s new owner has promised. Sergey Gorkov, the deputy head of Sberbank’s executive board, said today (Mon) VBI would not leave the Austrian capital. He told the Kurier newspaper the plan was to increase the number of staff […]
Dozens of schools will be closed this year, the Styrian government has revealed. The province’s coalition of Social Democrats (SPÖ), People’s Party (ÖVP) and Freedom Party (FPÖ) said yesterday (Tues) that it planned to shut down 31 primary schools throughout the 2012/2013 term. Schools with just one class of 20 pupils and fewer would be […]
Members of a small parish in Vienna are outraged by Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn’s decision to hand over the church to the city’s Serbian-Orthodox community for free. Neuleuchenfeld parishioners harshly criticised Schönborn for his decision made public last year. Now the Vatican decided to reject their appeal. It promised to rule on the issue by […]
Austria’s leading electricity provider will not reveal its decision on possible price increases before the first quarter of next year. Verbund AG pointed out yesterday (Thurs) that it did not raise its consumer prices this year. It added that information about price developments for next year will not be announced before the first three months […]
Conservative decision-makers are expected to raise the pressure on Alexander Wrabetz after his re-election as head of national broadcaster ORF. Twenty-nine delegates of ORF’s 35-member foundation council confirmed Wrabetz in office after a two-hour hearing yesterday afternoon (Tues). The other members of the council abstained from voting. Wrabetz started his first term in 2006 thanks […]
Austria’s decision not to extradite a war crimes suspect has caused a severe diplomatic rift with Lithuania. Juridical decision-makers opted to let Mikhail G. go after he was put in custody at Vienna International Airport (VIA or VIE) last Thursday. The former officer of Soviet security agency KGB is accused of having masterminded the operations […]
A controversial member of the European Parliament (MEP) could be in court for fraud later this year, it has emerged. Hans-Peter Martin made headlines by secretly filming MEPs of different nationalities and political movements to expose their alleged abuse of various privileges in Strasbourg, France, and Brussels, Belgium, where the European Parliament (EP) and the […]