Peter Puller

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Peter Puller (born January 28, 1980 in Graz ) is an Austrian journalist and PR consultant. He became known in 2005 with political dirty campaigning as an employee of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) in the election campaign for the state elections in Styria and again in 2017 in the election campaign for the National Council election as an employee of the political advisor Tal Silberstein, who works for the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) .

Professional career

After graduating from high school , Puller initially enrolled in political science at the University of Innsbruck , but returned to Graz at the age of 20 and began working as a journalist for the Styrian Kronen Zeitung .

From there he switched to the press office of the Styrian ÖVP in 2004 , where he wrote a guide for campaign staff for the 2005 state elections , which described how dirty campaigning can be carried out using letters to the editor , which are an “effective means” of “information or to spread rumors that may not be used in the context of official media work ”. Among other things, it was recommended that Franz Voves , the top candidate of the SPÖ, be portrayed as a lazy person and a hindrance with fake letters to the editor, which should also contain spelling errors in order to appear more authentic, or to manipulate the mood with objectively unqualified Internet postings. The then ÖVP general secretary Reinhold Lopatka stated that “overzealous young employees” were responsible for these guidelines. When Hannes Missethon , up to then regional manager of the Styrian ÖVP, succeeded Lopatka as general secretary of the federal party, Puller moved with him to Vienna in 2007 and became editor-in-chief of the ÖVP press service, then first cabinet spokesman and then in 2010 cabinet head of Minister Beatrix Karl, who was also coming from Styria (ÖVP) in the science and then in the justice ministry .

In 2011 he became self-employed as a PR consultant and continued to oversee projects for the Ministry of Science. In 2013 he founded two sole proprietorships for public relations consulting and pet trade .

For the state and municipal council elections in Vienna in 2015 , Puller led the Neos election campaign and began working with Silberstein. Discussions and an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission had a mass - SMS to, according to the puller, about 10,000 recipients result, which was sent on election day by the Neos. From 2015 he was in bankruptcy proceedings with a debt of around 65,000 euros . He refuses to work for the FPÖ. The consulting contract with the Neos was terminated in autumn 2017 in the wake of the “ Silberstein Affair ”.

In the election campaign for the 2017 National Council election , he was responsible for “strategic planning and analysis” as an employee of the SPÖ advisor Silberstein, and according to media reports also operationally for the Facebook pages We for Sebastian Kurz and The Truth About Sebastian Kurz , on which Dirty Campaigning against Sebastian Kurz , the federal party chairman and top candidate of the ÖVP was operated. Some of the Facebook pages served racist , anti-Semitic and xenophobic schemes and were intended to discredit Kurz. After Silberstein's temporary arrest in Israel on suspicion of bribery and the subsequent termination of the advisory contract by the SPÖ, Puller continued to operate the site after consulting Paul Pöchhacker , one of the SPÖ's election campaign managers. Puller denied contacts with the SPÖ. The then Federal Chancellor Christian Kern , however, still referred to Puller on October 5, 2017 as “an employee of our team”. The SPÖ reserves the right to take legal action against Puller. At the end of October 2017, Puller was investigated by the public prosecutor as administrator of the Facebook pages We for Sebastian Kurz and The Truth About Sebastian Kurz .

In the course of the " Silberstein Affair " Puller accused Gerald Fleischmann , the spokesman for Kurz in his function as Foreign Minister, of having already offered him 100,000 euros on July 17, 2017 to pass on internal information from the SPÖ's election campaign to the ÖVP . The contact was confirmed by their side, but their purpose was to recruit Puller and not to buy internal SPÖ documents from him. Puller wanted to prove his information with a lie detector test that was not recognized by the court. The ÖVP sued Puller, along with the "SPÖ, Christian Kern, Georg Niedermühlbichler , Tal Silberstein, [...], Paul Pöchhacker and Robert L. because of the dissemination of credit-damaging, insulting, racist, anti-Semitic and hateful content". Gerald Fleischmann sued him for defamation . In January 2018, the ÖVP offered "eternal rest" of the civil law proceedings, which the SPÖ wanted to examine for the time being. A comparison was achieved with Puller.

The actor and cabaret artist Florian Scheuba satirized Puller's responsibility in the Silberstein affair. He describes "the dirt bucket campaigns he designed on behalf of Silberstein as a 'professional market research project'".

From July to September 2017 there was a consulting contract with the Austrian Society for Political Analysis (ÖGP), which supports the “Stop Extremism” project initiated by Efgani Dönmez (formerly Die Grünen , 2017 candidate of the ÖVP ) in Austria . Puller's task was, among other things, to "set up a team to support the project 'European citizens' initiative against extremism'". A fee of 180,000 euros for one year was agreed. The contract was signed on July 17, 2017, but terminated after about eight weeks. Puller received an expense allowance of 1,906.17 euros. Before and after, there was no financial transaction or collaboration with Puller. According to Puller, the fee for the 8-week activity was still outstanding on October 6th.

In 2018, Puller campaigned for the Social Democratic Prime Minister of Macedonia , Zoran Zaev .

Works

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edith Meinhart, Rosemarie Schwaiger: The ugly factor . In: profile . No. 30 , July 25, 2005, pp. 14 ( online [accessed October 20, 2017]).
  2. ↑ a b Kid Möchel: Sudel election campaign: The disreputable business of the Silberstein mercenary . In: Courier . October 6, 2017, p. 4 ( online ).
  3. ↑ a b c Der Standard : Peter Puller: A cross-border commuter plays with fire , October 6, 2017, accessed on October 8, 2017
  4. ↑ a b c Philipp Aichinger: The terribly nice Mr. Puller . In: The press . October 7, 2017, p. 6 ( online [accessed October 24, 2017]).
  5. ^ Die Presse : Tal Silberstein and the truth about the SPÖ's dirt bucket campaigns , September 30, 2017
  6. ^ Karl press spokesman becomes head of cabinet . derstandard.at. November 30, 2010. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  7. ↑ WKO companies A – Z. Austrian Chamber of Commerce , archived from the original on October 21, 2017 ; accessed on July 9, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Othmar Pruckner: Hunt for the red phantom . In: trend . No. 1-3 , January 20, 2017, pp. 36, 37 ( online [accessed October 27, 2017]).
  9. ^ Courier : Authority to investigate NEOS bulk SMS , November 15, 2015
  10. ↑ Der Standard : A Man with Many Contacts , October 1, 2017
  11. ↑ Gernot Bauer , Michael Nikbakhsh: Filth layer work . In: profile . No.  40 , October 9, 2017, p. 18-20, 23-24 .
  12. ↑ Silberstein employee: "Was offered € 100,000 by the ÖVP" diepresse.com, accessed in October 2017
  13. ↑ The dirty campaign against Kurz came from SPÖ consultant heute.at, accessed on October 8, 2017
  14. ↑ Katia Wagner: Political advisors more important than ideals? In: Kronen Zeitung . August 23, 2017. Retrieved October 10, 2017 .
  15. ↑ Christian Böhmer: Silberstein: The SPÖ's relief offensive again wavers . In: Courier . October 4, 2017, p. 2 ( Online - The print article contains a facsimile of the correspondence.): “The correspondence between Pöchhacker (SPÖ) and Puller (Silberstein) shows that Silberstein's team asked what should happen to the underhanded Facebook pages. Pöchhacker's answer: The pages have to stay online for the time being - otherwise you would see the connection between Silberstein and the pages immediately. "
  16. ↑ a b Günther Oswald: "See complaint relaxed" . In: The Standard . S. 4, 5 ( Online [accessed on October 13, 2017] Interview with Peter Puller. Online title: Silberstein employee Puller wants to prove the ÖVP's € 100,000 offer in court).
  17. ^ The video report from Donaukanal about yesterday's visit by Christian Kern (in Oberwaltersdorf). (Video) SPÖ Lower Austria , October 5, 2017, accessed on October 15, 2017 (from 2:12; published on Facebook on October 6).
  18. ↑ Kern: "Will bring truth to light". orf.at , October 5, 2017, accessed on October 15, 2017 (ORF reported on an employee of Silberstein and refers to Peter Puller).
  19. ^ Anna Thalhammer: Silberstein's role and fees . In: The press . October 6, 2017, p. 1 ( Online [accessed October 11, 2017]).
  20. ↑ Election campaign: Ex-ÖVP functionary operated anti-core Facebook page . In: The press . October 31, 2017 ( online [accessed October 31, 2017]).
  21. ↑ Falter : PR expert Peter Puller claims that ÖVP offered him money for inside information , October 5, 2017
  22. ↑ Kurier : Causa Puller, in search of the truth , October 6, 2017
  23. ↑ Katrin Burgstaller: Puller invites you to the lie detector show . In: The Standard . October 12, 2017, p. 5 ( Online [accessed October 20, 2017] Online title: Puller and the Lie Detector Show).
  24. ^ Florian Gasser: An Austrian tragedy. Die Zeit-Online , October 15, 2017, accessed on October 20, 2017 .
  25. ↑ The Silberstein Scandal . In: Thomas Hofer , Barbara Tóth (Eds.): Wahl 2017. Loser, Leaks & Leadership . ÄrzteVerlag, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-9503276-4-9 , p. 150 ( Commercial Court Vienna, GZ D089 / 17, October 10, 2017; see FN 33, 36).
  26. ↑ Katharina Mittelstaedt, Nina Weißensteiner: Causa Silberstein and Co: SPÖ does not give up yet . In: The Standard . January 10, 2018, p. 7 ( Online [accessed July 9, 2019]).
  27. ↑ Florian Scheuba : Research through forgery . In: The Standard . October 12, 2017, p.  36 ( online [accessed October 24, 2017]).
  28. ↑ Der Standard : Peter Puller's “construction sites” , October 2, 2017
  29. ^ Die Presse : ÖGP: No fee to puller agency for Dönmez project , October 4th, 2017
  30. ↑ Oliver Pink : Peter Puller was now campaigning in Skopje . In: The press . October 2, 2018, p.  2 ( Paywall [accessed July 9, 2019]).
personal data
SURNAME Puller, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian journalist and PR consultant
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH Graz