Buberlpartie

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Buberlpartie is a name for a group of formerly young Austrian politicians who formed his closest circle during the time of Jörg Haider's political rise (1986 to 1999). Several of them came into conflict with the law, had to stand trial and were sentenced to imprisonment.

Later the term Buberlpartie was sporadically used for other groups of young politicians.

background

When the Austrian National Council election in 1999 led to the formation of the federal government Schüssel I of the conservative ÖVP with the right-wing FPÖ under Jörg Haider ( black-blue coalition ), according to the NZZ correspondent Charles Ritterband , “it provided insufficient information Foreign countries already threaten the return of fascism in Austria ”. Instead of a relapse into dark times, Ritterband later stated a political springtime, on the one hand there was an early collapse of the FPÖ, which had quickly become successful under Haider, and on the other hand there was a plethora of corruption investigations and financial scandals. The party leader Haider did not join the government at the time, but remained provincial governor in Carinthia, which then fell into financial emergency as a result of the Hypo Alpe Adria case . After the fiasco of the new elections in 2002, the FPÖ government team only lasted until the SPÖ election victory in 2006 , when the old FPÖ, then known as the BZÖ , increasingly slipped into insignificance.

Austrian commentators sometimes spoke of a " banana republic ", a self-service shop for politicians and climbers from the "provinces" (the latter a derogatory term for the old Viennese cliques for the western and southern federal states of Austria). Armin Thurnher coined the often rumored suitcase word "feschism" in relation to fascism concerns abroad , referring to the quite good-looking (Austrian: feschen ) party chairman and several of his close colleagues and the then new tendency of populism and the increasing priority of the telegenic over professional competence . The expression “Buberl” itself (Austrian boy , 'boy', with another ironic, belittling diminutive) alludes with homoerotic echoes to the almost pure and, for the Austrian political conditions of the time, young group of men who were the protagonists of the Haider era. The "Buberln" did not come from the party apparatus, but from the friendly environment of Haider. They contributed to the youthful appearance of the party and its success in the late 1980s and 1990s and subsequently profited by attaining high party and government offices. One also spoke of his “ pupils ” (according to Markus Ebert , 2000). “Partie” is an Austrian word for a “group of workers put together for a special job” up to a sworn clique of friends or a circle, often with a pejorative undertone.

Jörg Haider's Buberln were rather apolitical and not committed to an ideology. A female exception was Susanne Riess-Passer , who, like Heinz-Christian Strache - who then pursued the split of the new original FPÖ from the old FPÖ Haiders, renamed BZÖ - came from the traditional party apparatus of the Freedom Party or the Third Camp . This impression of an immediate, intimate circle of friends around Jörg Haider after his early death in 2008, when the admiration for the party leader took on the form of a personality cult , was reinforced by statements such as the “Lebensmenschen Haider” by Stefan Petzner . The core of the term “Buberlpartie” is that “Freunderlwirtschaft” - the Austrian expression for assigning posts and contracts within political clusters - was not only a problem for the Viennese grand coalition establishment, but was even more excessive by the newcomers from Carinthia Team on the rise of the "light figure" Haider and the fall of his political legacy.

Members

Gernot Rumpold , Peter Westenthaler , Walter Meischberger and Karl-Heinz Grasser were assigned to the Buberlpartie as well as:

In the context of conflicts of interest, there were repeated breaks and rapprochements between members of the Buberlpartie and Haider.

Gernot Rumpold

The Carinthian first came into contact with Haider at the age of 21 in 1979. He got to know the young politician who had just joined the National Council through a gas station owner and at three o'clock in the morning at this gas station in the Gurktal he confessed to being a party member. "Until then, I was apolitical," says Rumpold of himself. A little later Haider told him that something had to be done in Carinthia and that he needed the people because the party had no money. Rumpold and others founded Klub 3 , a youth club that operated party advertising. What Rumpold found good was the feeling of togetherness that arose. From 1984 to 1986 Rumpold was regional manager of the FPÖ Carinthia and from 1990 to 1996 federal manager of the FPÖ. He later profited through his advertising companies from the procurement of the Eurofighters by the federal government. He received orders from the environment of the manufacturing company EADS . Haider, on the other hand, acted as a declared Eurofighter opponent, but later switched to a pro line. Rumpold led the advertising campaigns for the newly founded BZÖ.

On August 9, 2013, Rumpold was sentenced to three years of unconditional imprisonment in the so-called Telekom Austria affair for contributing to infidelity. The verdict is not yet legally binding.

Walter Meischberger

In 1987 Haider, at that time already party chairman of the FPÖ, met the 28-year-old petrol station leaseholder Walter Meischberger. He made Meischberger first the local group chairman of the FPÖ in Kematen in Tyrol . A year later Meischberger became State Secretary General of the FPÖ Tirol, a year later Federal Managing Director and in 1990 Federal Secretary General. In April 1989 he became the youngest member of the second republic in the Federal Council and in 1990 he moved to the Austrian National Council , where he was deputy club chairman from 1995 . At the beginning of 1999, Meischberger was convicted of inciting tax evasion. In response to public pressure, he resigned his mandate in February 1999 , shortly before Haider had to strike a state election in Carinthia . After some MPs had renounced the mandate, Meischberger would have returned to the National Council in April of the same year on the list of the FPÖ , but he was expelled from the FPÖ before the inauguration . He resigned from the mandate, but is said to have received 2.5 million schillings (181,682 euros) from the FPÖ in the form of a bearer savings account. In the following years, Meischberger worked in the private sector with his advertising company and was involved in numerous affairs ( BUWOG , Tetron , Terminal Tower ). According to the public prosecutor's office, he is said to have benefited from numerous privatizations that his friend Karl-Heinz Grasser initiated as finance minister.

Peter Westenthaler

Westenthaler was discovered by Jörg Haider at an election event in 1988 at the age of 20. He then began as a freelancer in the FPÖ parliamentary club . As he himself stated, he was involved in the FPÖ out of admiration for Haider. The next year he became a full-time press officer FPÖ parliamentary group (until 1991), 1990 as chairman of the Vienna Freiheitlicher ring youth (where he Heinz-Christian Strache not recorded because it was quite heavy.) In 1991 he moved to the Vienna City Council a (until 1999) and in the same year he became secretary of the then federal party leader Haider (until 1993). "He did the unpleasant political work in the spirit of his boss, he attacked political opponents, defended his party leader even in the most unpleasant situations." In 1996 Westenthaler became head of the newly installed communications office and in the same year, at the age of 28, General Secretary of the FPÖ (up to 1999). When Herbert Scheibner entered the government, he took over his post as club chairman, where he worked closely with his ÖVP counterpart Andreas Khol , abandoning his previous style and becoming a factual politician. In 2000 he became deputy federal party chairman . In October 2000 there were first indications that he had fallen out of favor with Haider, and in July 2001 criticism of him for his ORF policy was first raised in the FP Club. Haider also withdrew his trust at the time and attacked him. In February 2002, against all suspicions, Westenthaler was confirmed in his office at a crisis meeting. As a result of the so-called “ Putsch von Knittelfeld ” in 2002, which Haider supported , Westenthaler resigned from his offices. In 2006 he returned to Haider and his new party, the BZÖ , and took over the post of alliance chairman and top candidate. On July 29, 2008, Westenthaler was sentenced to nine months of conditional imprisonment for false testimony. The sentence was reduced to six months of conditional imprisonment on June 18, 2009 following an appeal and is final.

Karl-Heinz Grasser

During Haider's time as club chairman in the National Council, Grasser made it to Carinthia's deputy governor when he was only 25 years old . After careful criticism of Haider's management style, the first break occurred in 1998. Grasser switched to the industrial group Magna . Haider brought him back as Finance Minister in 2000 when the government was being formed . As a result of the "Knittelfeld Putsch" in 2002, Karl-Heinz Grasser, like Westenthaler, resigned from his office. He turned to the ÖVP and was appointed by them as "non-party" finance minister. Numerous proceedings are ongoing against Grasser on suspicion of abuse of office and breach of official secrecy, as well as on suspicion of breach of trust and tax evasion.

literature

  • Serge Pascal Morcevic: Haider's friends - Buberl game or brain trust? in: Rolf-Josef Eibicht (Ed.): Jörg Haider - Patriot in Twilight? , DS-Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-9805844-1-0 , p. 193

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Laura and the Buberlpartie" - derstandard.at
  2. ↑ When everyone is unfaithful. Going to the FPÖ is no longer chic in Austria before the election: The decline of Haider's feschism . Ulrich Weinzierl in: Die Welt , November 23, 2002.
  3. ↑ a b c d Austria: Where to Judge - For twelve years, Charles E. Ritterband reported on Austrian politics for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Now he puts this function back. The résumé of a reporter who set out to understand an operetta state. Charles E. Ritterband in: Die Zeit , February 14, 2013.
  4. ^ "Neues Volksblatt" commentary: "Chance" (by Markus Ebert). Issued March 1, 2000. Press release, APA OTS0033, March 1, 2000.
  5. ↑ cf. in addition A black lot. Omnipresent Austriakum with a dazzling range of meanings. Christoph Winder in: Der Standard online, March 19, 2016.
  6. ^ A b Norbert Mappes-Niediek : Austria for Germans: Insights into a foreign country. Ch.links Verlag, January 1, 2012, p. 87 ff.
  7. ^ "Strutz and Petzner: Your Career" ( Memento from September 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Kleine Zeitung from August 12, 2008
  8. ↑ Standard article on sbg.at (PDF)
  9. ↑ Christa Zöchling: Haider. Light and shadow of a career , 2nd edition, Molden, 1999, ISBN 3-85485-025-5 , p. 107
  10. ↑ APA: Buberl, best man, tax evader: Meischberger in portrait , diepresse.com, August 4, 2010
  11. ↑ Lucian Mayringer: Haider's "Ur-Buberl": Walter Meischberger in focus , nachrichten.at, August 5, 2010
  12. ^ FPÖ is said to have bought Meischberger's resignation in 1999 , DerStandard, from June 23, 2010
  13. ↑ 350,000 euros “Success Commission” profile , March 17, 2012
  14. ↑ EXCLUSIVE: Plech and Meischberger's interrogation protocols reveal new accounts… ( Memento of the original from January 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) 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. Format , October 28, 2011  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.format.at
  15. ↑ Die Presse: Did Grasser know witnesses from Berner? DiePresse.com of July 29, 2010
  16. ↑ Thomas Seifert: Springboards to Power. Management training centers in Austria. Ueberreuter, 1998, ISBN 3-8000-3702-5 , p. 47.
  17. ↑ Thomas Mayer: The FPÖ is the problem. In: Der Standard , January 29, 2007; derstandard.at, July 23, 2007
  18. ↑ a b Erich Witzmann: Peter Westenthaler , diepresse.com, September 9, 2002
  19. ↑ Christa Zöchling: BZÖ / FPÖ: Rechtsbewusstsein , profil.at, May 20, 2006
  20. ^ ORF : Trial against Peter Westenthaler begins on June 11, 2008
  21. ↑ ORF : Ex-bodyguard charged BZÖ boss ( Memento of the original from June 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , June 11, 2008 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.orf.at
  22. ^ ORF : Final in the Westenthaler trial on July 29th, July 25th 2008
  23. ^ ORF : Nine months conditionally for Westenthaler , July 29, 2008
  24. ^ ORF : Verdict confirmed for Westenthaler , June 18, 2009
  25. ↑ orf.at: 46 investors on the list ( memento of the original from January 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) 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. [ORF] online from January 14, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / news.orf.at
  26. ↑ Michael Nikbakhsh , Josef Redl: Grasser under suspected infidelity profile online from July 10, 2010