Alexander Zach

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Alexander Zach during the presentation of the LIF candidates for the 2008 National Council election
Alexander Zach with Heide Schmidt and Hans Peter Haselsteiner at a press conference in 2008

Alexander Zach (born September 10, 1976 in Vienna ) is an Austrian politician and former member of the Austrian National Council and initiator of the Liberal Institute Austria. Until 2008 he was spokesman for the Liberal Forum .

Political career

From 1992 to 1995, Alexander Zach was editor-in-chief of the school newspaper and head of school at the Bundesgymnasium Wien 18 Klostergasse . There he founded the independent student council “Sapperlot”, through which Johannes Vetter of the ÖVP-affiliated student union took over the Vienna state school spokesperson. From 1994 to 1995 he was a member of the Vienna AHS regional student council.

The two most successful ballots of the Liberal Student Forum at the time, with around 10 percent in 1997 and 1999, were conducted by Zach as LSF Federal Managing Director; he was also a mandate in the federal representation of the Austrian Students' Union (formerly Central Committee). From 1998 to 2001, Zach worked as a liberal district councilor in Vienna-Währing for a “miniature parliament”.

From 2002, Zach was also vice chairman of the Liberal International (LI) and representative of the LIF in the Council of the European Liberal Party (ELDR).

On September 23, 2008, Zach resigned as spokesman for the Presidium, Member of the National Council and as a candidate for the National Council election, drawing the consequences of the allegations made against him of lobbying his PR agency for the Eurofighter manufacturer EADS. Heide Schmidt took over the party chairmanship on an interim basis and Kurt Nekula (SPÖ) was appointed to the National Council .

Political goals

Civil rights, data protection

Zach is involved in the non-partisan platform Grundrechte against eavesdropping and computer searches ; supported by the Greens, LIF, ÖH, ARGE Daten and others. In June 2007 in the National Council he made a request against the "suspicion-independent data retention ", with which an EU directive should be implemented quickly and in excess.

For Zach, being able to keep open on Sundays is one of the freedoms of consumers and business owners. The employees should only work voluntarily on Sundays.

Basic income

Zach advocates an unconditional basic income of 750 euros a month for everyone. This should provide the basis for everyone to participate in the social and cultural life of the open society; especially for lifelong learning. He is promoting this with the boss of the dm chain Götz Werner and also on a European level.

houses of Parliament

For the 2006 National Council election , Zach and the LIF accepted Alfred Gusenbauer's offer of an electoral alliance . Zach ran for the Liberal Forum in the electoral alliance with the SPÖ in 15th place on the social democratic federal list. After the election, he entered the National Council through this. Zach was a member of the SPÖ club, but emphasized his free mandate . He was not subject to any political group pressure and represented the policy of the Liberal Forum, which had a voice in parliament for the first time since 1999.

Zach was a member of three National Council committees: the Transport Committee, the Human Rights Committee, and the Research, Innovation and Technology Committee. Zach was a deputy member of both the judiciary and economic committees.

Life and work

Zach grew up in Vienna, where he graduated from high school in 1995, followed by training as an academically certified PR consultant in 1999; the university course for public relations of 4 semesters builds on 2 semesters law and 2 semesters PoWi-Pub.

From 2002 to the beginning of 2006 he was the managing partner of a start-up, the PR agency Eurocontact (Vienna and Budapest) with four employees.

Since 2016, Zach has also been involved with the “ Datum ” magazine and acts as a management consultant and managing director of AZH Beteiligungs GmbH.

Zach has been married since 2007 and lives in Vienna.

Controversy

Donation allegation

During the election campaign for the 2006 National Council election, the EU parliamentarian Hans-Peter Martin reported on Zach's donations to Hungary. He had received around 15 million euros in consultancy fees for his former company Eurocontact from his fellow party member Hans Peter Haselsteiner (head of the Strabag construction company ) and donated part of the money to Hungarian parties through an association.

It turned out that the association "Liberales Institut" had actually supported projects of political academies in Hungary with around 93,000 euros, which the chairman of the Hungarian SZDSZ confirmed. Haselsteiner's group also confirmed the flow of money: "It was Haselsteiner's express wish that Eurocontact donate part of the fee 'to support political democracy in Hungary to party-affiliated associations and academies'".

Martin went on to say that Zach was a “ gun lobbyist ” because he worked for EADS with Eurocontact in Hungary . A Zach spokesman said shortly about this accusation: "Zach is not allowed to provide any information about activities of the euro: contact company". These allegations reappeared during the election campaign for the 2008 National Council election , and again Zach and Haselsteiner commented on the allegations, mostly dismissive. In the Standard , Zach admitted, however, that Eurocontact worked indirectly for EADS through the German agency Salaction, among other things for "media monitoring on the subject of interceptors". The standard described the services provided as "lobbying work". The case against Zach was closed in 2013.

Ibiza affair

In the wake of the Ibiza affair that led to the overthrow of the Kurz I government in 2019 , it became known that Zach had been offered the Ibiza video by his former school colleague, lawyer Ramin M. It was also offered to another school colleague and former LIF man who worked for the then SPÖ boss Christian Kern . Both refused. End of August 2017 was also Zach's business partners, the STRABAG the video lobbyists and former LIF - Secretary Zoltán Aczél offered. He should tell Haselsteiner about it. Five million euros were required. Aczél also refused, saying that he only informed Haselsteiner after the publication in May 2019.

Publications

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oliver Pink : A beta animal with organizational talent . In: The press . September 6, 2006, p.  5 ( online ).
  2. ↑ Oliver Pink : Johannes Vetter, the stress-resilient liberal in Löwelstrasse . In: The press . August 20, 2017, p.  4 ( paywall ).
  3. ↑ Zach leaves as LIF boss, Schmidt comes back. In: orf.at . September 23, 2008, archived from the original on January 15, 2013 ; accessed on December 9, 2019 .
  4. ↑ News : Bang five days before the election , September 25, 2008
  5. ↑ a b Die Presse : Ex-LIF boss joins “Datum” , August 16, 2016
  6. ↑ a b AZH Beteiligungs GmbH. In: firmenmonitor.at . Retrieved December 9, 2019 (commercial register number 281432x).
  7. ↑ Heute.at : Strabag boss Haselsteiner: Suspicion of bribery , April 9, 2009
  8. ↑ Der Standard : Allegations against Haselsteiner overshadow the LIF election campaign , September 8, 2008
  9. ↑ Der Standard : The Lobbyist's Long Shadow on the Liberals , September 21, 2008
  10. ↑ Oliver Pink : Ibiza, the film: What happened so far . In: The press . December 8, 2019, p.  4 ( Paywall [accessed December 9, 2019]).
  11. ↑ Joseph Gepp, Michael Nikbakhsh , Martin Staudinger, Jakob Winter: Tatbilder . In: Profile . No. 23 , June 2, 2019, p. 24-27 .
  12. ↑ Renate Graber, Kim Son Hoang, David Krutzler: Strabag rejects involvement in Ibiza . In: The Standard . May 28, 2019, p. 6 ( online [accessed December 9, 2019]).
  13. ↑ Holger Stark : "Ramin and the detectives" . In: The world . No.  28 , July 4, 2019, p. 4, 5 ( online [accessed September 23, 2019] The article has been updated due to further information and a court decision).

Web links

Commons : Alexander Zach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Zach, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician (LI), member of the National Council
DATE OF BIRTH September 10, 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna