Strabag–Tisza Financing Scandal: Introducing the Powerful Austrian Liberal Industrial Magnate

Barely a day passed after a post was published on Facebook by Construction and Transport Minister Janos Lazar, describing how the Austrian construction company Strabag financially and through opinion polls supports the Tisza Party, and the issue exploded in Austria. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) has initiated a parliamentary investigation and called on the leader of the NEOS party, the liberal coalition partner, to immediately clarify whether she had prior knowledge of the matter and whether Austria's Foreign Ministry, which she leads, is involved in any way. The controversy, however, is not new. Strabag and its liberal-leaning owner have a long history of political influence-building in Hungary, dating back to the early 2000s. Magyar Nemzet now presents a two-part series examining the Austrian company’s political involvement and its connections to the former Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) party financing scandal.

Hans Peter Haselsteiner, a key player in the Strabag scandal (Source: YouTube)

The story is rapidly developing into an international scandal over Strabag’s possible interference in the Hungarian election campaign, after the case reached Austria's parliament in Vienna. FPO Secretary-General and Member of Parliament Christian Hafenecker reacted sharply to Janos Lazar’s statement that Strabag has been financially and through opinion polls assisting Peter Magyar’s Tisza Party, as reported by the OTS news agency, which was also cited by Magyar Nemzet. Strabag has since tried to deny having any connection whatsoever with the Hungarian party.

 Strabag–Tisza financing scandal: Peter Magyar’s party may be the beneficiary of the liberal patron

Regardless, the FPO has raised the issue in the National Council, Austrian legislature, asking whether NEOS, the liberal party of New Austria and Liberal Forum, and its associated business networks, including Strabag and its owner Hans Peter Haselsteiner,  had any role in supporting the Tisza Party.

Christian Hafenecker has called on Beate Meinl-Reisinger, NEOS leader and Foreign Minister, to immediately clarify whether she had any knowledge of the affair, and whether the Austrian Foreign Ministry or any EU-linked institution was involved.

"If an Austrian business magnate, who has been one of the main financiers of NEOS for years, actively interferes in the election campaign of a neighboring country, that is a diplomatic time bomb,"said the FPO Secretary-General.

The FPO is now pushing for a parliamentary inquiry. Hafenecker announced that he would submit written questions to Meinl-Reisinger to shed light on the links between Strabag, NEOS, EU institutions, and the Hungarian opposition. "Austria’s foreign policy cannot be turned into the plaything of a liberal power cartel," Hafenecker stated. "If the Hungarian government strikes a firm tone, it is understandable. Austria must not export political influence while the same circles here react hysterically to every imagined external threat. This hypocrisy is the essence of Meinl-Reisinger’s politics," the Secretary-General pointed out.

The FPO’s outrage is not without reason. It is widely known that Hans Peter Haselsteiner, the Austrian industrial magnate, has for decades financed liberal political movements not only in Austria but abroad as well. Few may remember that some twenty years ago, a similar party-financing scandal broke out in Hungary, with Strabag and its powerful owner again at the center, alongside the then-ruling Socialists-Free Democrats (MSZP–SZDSZ) coalition.

Before revisiting that earlier scandal, it is worth recalling who Haselsteiner is. Already in the 1990s, he was a significant figure not only in business but also in politics. A politician and financier of the Liberal Forum (LIF), Haselsteiner served as a member of the Austrian National Council between 1994 and 1998, and from 1996 to 1998 as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Forum’s parliamentary group. In the 2008 parliamentary elections, when the Liberal Forum again failed to win seats, Haselsteiner participated as a campaign financier, the party’s economic spokesperson, and chairman of the support committee for lead candidate Heide Schmidt.

By 2013, Haselsteiner was financially backing the NEOS electoral alliance, which successfully entered parliament. In January 2014, NEOS and the Liberal Forum merged to form NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum. It is this party’s current leader, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, whom the FPO has now called upon to explain the alleged financing of the Tisza Party. All this clearly shows that Haselsteiner has long practiced the art of political influence, a tool he has often translated into major public contracts worth billions.

An example of this was the scandal in the mid-2000s sparked by reports in both the Austrian and Hungarian press claiming that Strabag donated tens of millions of forints to the liberal SZDSZ, the smaller coalition partner in Hungary’s then-government.

It was no coincidence that in October 2006, at a demonstration on Budapest’s Kossuth Square, Laszlo Kover, then chairman of the opposition Fidesz party’s national board, referred to the SZDSZ as the "Alliance of Strabag Democrats."

At the time, Hungarian public life was dominated by the leaked Oszod speech of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, and the resulting political firestorm. Against that backdrop, the Strabag–SZDSZ affair seemed a smaller scandal although, as we will show in the next part of this series, it continued to surface in the media for years afterward.

To be continued.

               

       

       
       

            További játékainkhoz kattintson ide!