Gerhard Dörfler

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Governor of Carinthia a. D. Gerhard Dörfler

Gerhard Dörfler (born May 29, 1955 in Deutsch-Griffen , Carinthia ) is a former Austrian politician ( FPÖ , BZÖ , then FPK ) who was finally convicted of infidelity and taking advantage. From 2008 to 2013 he was Governor of Carinthia. Until 2017 he was the Austrian Federal Councilor .

education

Gerhard Dörfler completed an apprenticeship as a bank clerk at Volksbank Feldkirchen in 1970 and was branch manager of Volksbank Ossiach from 1976 to 1985 . He then worked from 1985 to 1998 as depot manager in the Feldkirchen depot of the Villacher brewery . From 1999 to 2001 he was depot manager of the Schleppe brewery in Klagenfurt, which at that time already belonged to VKBAG after a large part of production had been relocated to Villach and the “Schleppe brewery” only served as a warehouse.

Political career

The Jörg-Haider-Brücke, so named on Dörfler's initiative, including the signboard with the view of the Petzen

Dörfler became a member of the government and 1st Deputy Governor under the Haider III regional government. His portfolio included the areas of tourism, transport and road construction, family support, kindergartens and special support for the elderly.

In 2006, Dörfler played a leading role as regional transport councilor in relocating place-name signs , which, according to the Constitutional Court, had to be bilingual, by a few meters, so that the boards judged by the Constitutional Court (see local board dispute ) no longer exist de jure and the knowledge can be circumvented. On August 6, 2009 it became public that the public prosecutor's office refrained from indicting Dörfler of abuse of office. The case was processed by the judicial authorities in Klagenfurt, Graz and Vienna. His attitude was justified by the fact that although there was an objective abuse of office , there had been no "knowingly abusive conduct" by the governor.

After Jörg Haider's death on October 11, 2008, he took over the official duties of the governor as the first deputy governor. On October 23, he was elected governor by the state parliament with 19 out of 36 votes.

The sentence he uttered after Haider's death: "The sun has fallen from the sky" has been reviewed many times since then, both approvingly and negatively.

Dörfler campaigned as a BZÖ top candidate in the state elections in Carinthia 2009 on March 1, 2009. The BZÖ won the election with 44.9 percent of the vote.

See also: Landesregierung Dörfler I and Landesregierung Dörfler II

In January 2009, Dörfler caused a scandal with a “nigger joke” in a press conference on the program When the music is playing . He justified this statement with the statement, among other things, “ It was not a Negro joke, but a cocoa joke. It's about the cocoa. “In addition, according to his statement, Roberto Blanco , who was present on the show, was“ not injured. If it had been him, it would have hit me. This is all an artificial excitement in the election campaign . I will continue to be a governor where the laughter takes place. […] But I also learned. In the future, I will no longer make a joke that only allows a hint of interpretation. “Roberto Blanco commented on this in an email to News , in which he literally speaks of a“ harmless, for me non-discriminatory joke ”.

On the initiative of Gerhard Dörfler, the Lippitzbach Bridge was renamed Jörg Haider Bridge on January 25, 2009 in memory of Jörg Haider . This act met with harsh criticism from political opponents.

In 2011, with the help of Dörfler, the dispute on the town signs was settled by agreeing on a memorandum, which was written down by a constitutional majority in the new national minority law.

On March 27, 2012, the Carinthian provincial government submitted an application to the Austrian Constitutional Court to repeal the provisions on data retention.

In July 2012 Dörfler called for a general ban on the circumcision of underage boys for religious reasons.

On October 5, 2012, the Wölfnitz asylum seekers' home , which was planned by Jörg Haider and opened by the then Governor Dörfler on October 8, 2008 and defended to the last, was finally closed.

In the early state elections in Carinthia in 2013 , the FPK received only 16.85% of the vote on March 3, 2013, falling behind the SPÖ (37.13%) in second place, which won the election. Thereafter, Dörfler refused, despite a request from the new FPK executive chairman Christian Ragger , to renounce his state parliament mandate. On March 26, 2013 it was announced that he would not move into the state parliament, but into the Federal Council , although he had pleaded for the abolition of this institution in February 2012. Peter Kaiser (SPÖ) succeeded Dörfler as governor.

On March 14, 2017, he resigned from his position as Federal Councilor.

Criminal proceedings

Brochure affair and indictment of taking advantage

On November 5, 2013, the public prosecutor's office for business and corruption announced that Dörfler was being charged in the so-called "brochure affair" of infidelity . Uwe Scheuch , Harald Dobernig and Stefan Petzner are also charged with him . The defendants are accused of using an advertising brochure for Carinthia as a business location in a slightly modified form as the BZÖ's election brochure in the 2009 state election campaign. According to the indictment, the damage is said to have amounted to 219,000 euros. In 2014 the charges were dismissed by the Graz Higher Regional Court after appeals from the defense lawyers. However, after obtaining an opinion from the expert Georg Jeitler, the public prosecutor renewed the indictment, as announced on November 2, 2015. This became final, as the appeals of the accused were rejected by the Graz Higher Regional Court this time. The process began on January 17, 2017 at the Klagenfurt Regional Court.

Together with the prosecution in the context of the brochure affair, the business and corruption prosecutor reported that Dörfler is also being charged with taking advantage of the property. He is accused of asking for a benefit of at least 12,000 euros in 2004 as a traffic officer in connection with the award of a contract for the renovation of the Loibl tunnel . He is said to have demanded money from an employee of the best bidder on the grounds that he expected a sponsorship contribution of one to three percent for road safety for major construction contracts.

In the course of the proceedings, the public prosecutor extended the indictment to include the abuse of office based on testimony . After the prosecution was expanded in March 2017, Dörfler announced his resignation as Federal Councilor. At the same time, however, he emphasized that this was not an admission of guilt. However, he made a factual confession at the trial on March 13, 2017, but emphasized that he was unaware of the criminality of these acts.

On March 16, 2017, he was illegally sentenced to eight months' conditional imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros. Dörfler appealed. In his written copy, the judge justified the verdict, among other things, with the "obviously lacking humility of the accused Dörfler with regard to the legal requirements and legal requirements for conducting a report for the Carinthian state government" and the "associated naivety of the administration - coupled with the unrestricted will, to give the supposed political comrades both power and economic advantages ” . Dörfler had "unabashedly as the politically competent speaker called for a financial advantage for his (dutiful) official business" . In an appeal before the Supreme Court, the judgment was upheld on April 19, 2018. The appeal on the private law claims, however, was followed and the private parties referred with their claims on the civil law route.

Accusation of abuse of office through an illegal instruction

On September 13, 2017, it became known that the Corruption Prosecutor wanted to charge Dörfler with abuse of office. He was accused of having given an instruction to transfer an unused budget item in the amount of 38,000 euros on the basis of a bogus invoice into the next year in order not to lose control of the money. Although the indictment was already final, it was withdrawn by the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office because the Supreme Court restricted the abuse of office in another case against Uwe Scheuch .

Awards

Web links

Commons : Gerhard Dörfler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Waltraud Dengel: Who passed on place-name signs to the media? (No longer available online.) In: krone.at. August 17, 2009, formerly in the original ; accessed on July 23, 2020 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.krone.at  
  2. ↑ Elisabeth Steiner: Dörfler elected Haider's successor as governor. In: The Standard. October 24, 2008. Retrieved October 24, 2008 .
  3. ↑ "The sun has fallen from the sky" - reactions to death. (No longer available online.) In: krone.at. October 7, 2010, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 .;
  4. ↑ https://info.ktn.gv.at/ltwahl2009/
  5. ^ Vortex about "Negerwitz" from the Carinthian governor. (No longer available online.) In: ORF.at. January 17, 2009, archived from the original on February 20, 2009 ; Retrieved July 23, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / orf.at
  6. ^ A b Walter Müller: Dörfler on "Negerwitz": "A bit of fun must be". In: The Standard. January 23, 2009, accessed on January 23, 2009 (interview with Gerhard Dörfler).
  7. ↑ Dörfler- "Jokes": Now Roberto reacts. In: Vorarlberg Online. February 4, 2009, accessed March 1, 2009 .
  8. ↑ "Jörg Haider Bridge" is now a reality. In: ORF.at. January 25, 2009. Retrieved July 23, 2010 .
  9. ↑ Jörg Haider Bridge in Carinthia baptized. In: DiePresse.com. January 25, 2009. Retrieved July 23, 2010 .
  10. ^ Memorandum regarding bilingual "topographical inscriptions", the official language and measures for cooperation with the Slovene-speaking ethnic group (PDF) Carinthian regional government. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
  11. ↑ http://www.ktn.gv.at/42124_DE-MEDIEN-News.?newsid=19135&backtrack=42124
  12. ↑ https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Bundesland-Kaernten-ficht-oesterreichische-Vorratsdatenspeicherung-an-1484130.html
  13. ↑ Circumcisions: Villagers for prohibition, Burgstaller against. In: derstandard.at . July 25, 2012, accessed on May 8, 2013 (German).
  14. ↑ Governor Gerhard Dörfler admits his defeat. In: puls4.com. March 3, 2013, accessed March 3, 2013 .
  15. ^ Carinthia: Abolition of the Federal Council . Carinthian regional government, regional press service via OTS of the Austria Press Agency . February 14, 2012. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
  16. ↑ Ragger: "Dörfler goes to the Federal Council" . Little newspaper . March 26, 2013. Archived from the original on June 5, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  17. ↑ Gerhard Dörfler's biography on the Parliament's homepage. In: Parliament's homepage. Retrieved March 19, 2017 .
  18. ↑ Infidelity and bribery: charges against ex-FPK head. In: orf.at. November 5, 2013, accessed November 5, 2013 .
  19. ^ BZÖ election brochure: Further investigations are necessary . August 26, 2014. Retrieved August 24, 2015.
  20. ↑ Wolfgang Rössler: This report supports charges against Carinthian BZÖ politicians | NZZ . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . May 19, 2017, ISSN  0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed on August 6, 2018]).
  21. ^ Charges against the BZÖ election campaign brochure. In: orf.at. November 2, 2015, accessed November 2, 2015 .
  22. ^ BZÖ election brochure: Fixed charges . May 24, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  23. ↑ Trial against Scheuch, Dörfler and Dobernig starts on January 17th . December 6, 2016. Retrieved December 7, 2016.
  24. ^ Carinthia: Dörfler, Scheuch, Petzner and Dobernig indicted. In: diepresse.at. November 5, 2013, accessed November 5, 2013 .
  25. ^ Indictment expanded: Dörfler resigns. In: ORF. March 10, 2016, accessed March 10, 2016 .
  26. ^ BZÖ process: Dörfler resigns as Federal Councilor. In: The Standard. March 10, 2016, accessed March 10, 2016 .
  27. ^ BZÖ process: factual confession by Dörfler. In: ORF. March 13, 2016, accessed March 13, 2016 .
  28. ↑ Four convictions in the BZÖ process . March 16, 2017. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
  29. ↑ Dörfler and Scheuch fight against judgments . March 22, 2017. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
  30. ↑ Richter sees "lack of humility" in ex-governor Dörfler. In: Small newspaper. April 26, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2076 .
  31. ↑ Uwe Scheuch has to go to court on April 18th. In: Small newspaper. March 23, 2018, accessed March 24, 2018 .
  32. ↑ Appointment notice: Public hearing in the criminal case against Stefan P, Gerhard D, DI Uwe S and Mag. Harald D. (No longer available online.) In: Supreme Court. March 23, 2018, archived from the original on March 28, 2018 ; accessed on March 28, 2018 .
  33. ^ Election brochure rulings against Dörfler and Scheuch confirmed. Retrieved April 19, 2018 .
  34. ^ OGH confirms the convictions against Gerhard D. and DI Uwe S. In: OGH. April 19, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2018 .
  35. ^ New charges against former governor Dörfler. In: orf.at. October 13, 2017. Retrieved October 13, 2017 .
  36. ^ Indictment against Dörfler withdrawn. In: orf.at. January 21, 2018, accessed January 21, 2018 .
  37. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Dörfler, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician (FPÖ, BZÖ, FPK) and Governor of Carinthia, member of the Federal Council, convicted criminal
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Deutsch-Griffen , Carinthia