The website of Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz has been hacked by Turkish government supporters in response to remarks the Austrian politician made to Turkey’s Prime Minister. Kurz had on 13 June “warned” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan against introducing “splits into Austrian society” during his visit to the country in June. Three days later on […]
Tag: government
BAWAG prosecutors fail to find evidence
Categories
Linz prosecutors have dropped an investigation against BAWAG PSK after finding no evidence of wrongdoing. The announcement was made on Wednesday when prosecutors in the city said that they could not find proof that staff at the bank had tricked the municipal government into a 2007 swap deal. However a civil case is still being […]
Karlheinz Essl steps away from Baumax
Categories
Baumax founder Karlheinz Essl who hit the headlines earlier this year after he offered to sell his large art collection to Austria to help raise capital for his business, has stepped down as the chair of the company’s Supervisory Board. He has replaced himself with his son Martin Essl, who has been CEO of the […]
Austria’s coalition government is under fire over its management of a banking crisis in which it agreed to nationalise the Hypo Alpe Adria bank in a move that has saddled the country with an estimated 18 billion euros in debt. The Carinthian Hypo Alpe Adria was a bank that had expanded too quickly with heavy […]
A leading Austrian economist has caused controversy by questioning the government’s stance about how to deal with ailing bank Hypo Alpe Adria. Professor Karl Aiginger, who heads up think tank WIFO and is Professor of Economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, said the government were too quick to completely reject the […]
Bad bank solution for Hypo Alpe Adria
Categories
Austria’s national bank governor (OeNB) Ewald Nowotny has come out in favour of a “Bad Bank” model to solve the problems of the Hypo Alpe Adria (HGAA) bank. The bank in Carinthia was at the centre of a scandal after it was revealed that it had been involved in a number of questionable activities including […]
Salzburg coalition talks begin
Categories
A significant majority of the Green Party decided to start coalition talks with the ÖVP last evening (Wed). Negotiations about a new state government will start today. Team Stronach will also take part in the talks. The ÖVP, which got most votes in the elections of 5 May, invited the Green Party and Team Stronach […]
ÖVP NÖ wants to slow wind farm madness
Categories
The ÖVP wants to reduce wind farms in order not to spoil the image of the landscape. The government of Lower Austria decided to develop a new Planning Law and to keep the budget low. 460 wind farms will be put up in Lower Austria until the end of 2013. They deliver 14 percent of […]
Faymann warns against greed in society
Categories
The SPÖ converted its traditional May Parade at Rathausplatz in Vienna to some kind of unofficial election campaign. Chancellor and head of the SPÖ Werner Faymann appealed to his party officials to put “every effort” in the time before the elections. “If the debate at the end of September is: do you want a neoliberal […]
Victory for the SPÖ in Carinthia
Categories
The Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) won the regional elections in Carinthia (Southern Austria) yesterday (Sun), achieving 37.1%. The Freedom Party of Carinthia (FPK) lost most of the votes (-27.8%). The ÖVP, on third place (14.2%), was followed by the Green Party (11.8%). 440,748 Carinthians were entitled to vote, of which 71.4 percent actually voted. The […]