Cash-for-Laws affair

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The "Cash-for-Laws" affair (also lobbying affair or in the English-speaking area especially "Cash-for-influence scandal") describes the result of an investigative research by the Sunday Times reporters Claire Newell and Michael Gillard as the result of which in 2011 the two EU parliamentarians Ernst Strasser and Zoran Thaler resigned and Adrian Severin was expelled from the Social Democratic group.

Research of the Sunday Times

In the summer of 2010, the Sunday Times reporters Claire Newell and Michael Gillard started posing as lobbyists and tried for 100,000 euros each to get 60 different members of the European Parliament to push through a bill proposed by the reporters. The two received many rejections, but three MPs - Ernst Strasser from Austria, Adrian Severin from Romania and Zoran Thaler from Slovenia - accepted the offer. In German-speaking countries, Strasser in particular made headlines and clicks on relevant video portals in which the recordings of the conversations between him and the reporters circulated. For example, in these videos Strasser frankly admitted:

"Of course I am a lobbyist."

"Of course I'm a lobbyist."

- Ernst Strasser : recording of a conversation in the Sunday Times

Effects

Of the 14 MPs who responded to the Sunday Times reporter's offer, three took concrete steps to introduce the desired legislative changes.

Ernst Strasser

Strasser, who had been accused of lobbying again and again in the years before , was the first of the three MPs caught to resign from his seat; according to their own statements "because there was a campaign against me in Austria". This created a “look that harms the People's Party ”.

On August 9, 2012, the Corruption Prosecutor announced that he would be charged with bribery (Section 304 StGB , sentence: one to ten years). The trial against him began on November 26, 2012 at the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters . On January 14, 2013, Strasser was sentenced to four years of unconditional imprisonment in the first instance . The judgment was overturned in November 2013 and referred back to the first instance. There Strasser was convicted again on March 13, 2014 and was given 3 years. The judgment is final.

Zoran Thaler

The Slovenian social democrat Zoran Thaler also resigned, as did Strasser, who also claimed to have believed that secret services wanted to play a game with him: “I got into the game to finally reveal who organized these compromise attempts” and “My intentions were the best, but the road to Hell is sometimes paved with good intentions, ” the Standard quoted him as saying .

Adrian Severin

Adrian Severin saw no causal connection between the bill he introduced and the bill he made to the alleged lobbyists. He wants to continue to exercise his mandate. His faction excluded him, however, and advised him to also resign.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Murdoch's young hunter of corruptionists, Der Standard, March 21, 2011, accessed March 23, 2011
  2. ↑ Strasser's resignation: “A lobbyist smells” , profil.at of March 22, 2011, accessed on March 23, 2011
  3. ^ Die Presse : Public prosecutor's office brings charges against Strasser , August 9, 2011
  4. ^ A dinner with consequences , ORF, November 26, 2012
  5. ↑ Strasser guilty: 4 years imprisonment . Little newspaper . January 14, 2013. Archived from the original on October 19, 2014. Retrieved on January 14, 2013.
  6. ↑ Slovenian MEP: "Great stupidity happens" , Der Standard from March 22, 2011, accessed on March 23, 2011
  7. ↑ Romanian EU parliamentarian rejects allegations of bribery , Der Standard of March 20, 2011, accessed on March 23, 2011
  8. ↑ EU parliamentarians allowed themselves to be bribed by “lobbyists” , derwesten.de of March 21, 2011, accessed on March 23, 2011
  9. ↑ EU Social Democrats exclude Romanian MP Severin , Der Standard from March 22, 2011, accessed on March 23, 2011