Peter Westenthaler

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Peter Westenthaler (2006)

Peter Westenthaler (born November 6, 1967 in Vienna ; born Peter Hojač or Hojac ) was an Austrian politician and long-time top representative of the FPÖ , later the BZÖ , is now a political analyst at the TV broadcaster Oe24.tv, columnist for the daily newspaper "Österreich" and entrepreneurs.

Professional and political career

Peter Westenthaler attended the lower level of the grammar school of the Neulandschule am Laaer Berg for four years from 1979 to 1983, then the HTL Spengergasse , IT and operational organization department from 1983 to 1988. Westenthaler left his family name in 1984 on the occasion of an expected divorce of his parents (which then did not materialize) change from Hojac to the mother's maiden name. After graduating from high school, he studied journalism and political science at the University of Vienna for some time , but without obtaining a degree. After various jobs in the IT sector , he met Jörg Haider in 1988 and in the same year became a freelancer in the FPÖ parliamentary club (in the beginning he worked on the IT of the parliamentary club). From 1989 to 1991 he was a full-time press officer in the FPÖ parliamentary club under club chairman Norbert Gugerbauer . After that, Westenthaler, who is attributed to Jörg Haider's so-called “Buberlpartie” , was the personal secretary of federal party leader Jörg Haider until 1993. In 1995 he did his military service. In 1996 he was appointed head of the newly installed communications office, and from 1996 to 1999 he was also Secretary General of the FPÖ. Westenthaler reached the climax of his party career as deputy of the FPÖ federal party leader Susanne Riess-Passer from 2000 to 2002.

Westenthaler was a member of the Vienna City Council from 1991 to 1999 . After the National Council election in 1999 , he moved to the National Council . There he became club chairman of the FPÖ parliamentary group after the formation of the government in spring 2000 . In this function, he was primarily present in the media through his double conferences with ÖVP club chairman Andreas Khol (whom he still referred to as undemocracy in person in 1999 , later as a father's friend ), in which government projects were announced. In terms of media policy, Westenthaler was not only active as a member of the ORF Board of Trustees from 1999 onwards, his attempts to intervene in ORF's political reporting also caused a stir. According to some Austrian print media, the appointment of Alexander Wrabetz as the new General Director in August 2006 increased the influence of the BZÖ on ORF. The votes of the BZÖ in the ORF Board of Trustees were decisive for Wrabetz's victory over its competitors, which led the ÖVP in the person of Liese Prokop to attest Westenthaler “poor handshake quality”.

After the Knittelfelder FPÖ assembly in 2002 , Westenthaler resigned all party functions together with Susanne Riess-Passer and Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser , which resulted in new elections at the federal level due to the termination of the ÖVP / FPÖ coalition.

In 2001 Peter Westenthaler was awarded the negative Big Brother Award for his demands for a comprehensive collection of fingerprints .

In the 2006 National Council election, the BZÖ operated under his name

After his first political career, he was employed by Frank Stronach in his Magna-Steyr group and worked on Stronach's order (in his function as Bundesliga boss) as a member of the board of the Austrian soccer Bundesliga .

In October 2005, shortly before the Vienna state elections, Westenthaler took part in political action again by calling for the election of the BZÖ by means of an open letter. As a result, he was acted several times as a possible chairman of the BZÖ. After he had officially announced on May 20, 2006 that he would be available for this position, he was presented on May 22, 2006 by the BZÖ as the party's top candidate for the 2006 National Council election . The official election for these functions took place on June 23, 2006 at the Federal Convention in Salzburg . Party colleague Eduard Mainoni commented on Westenthaler's function in the party by saying that he was “someone who covers the proletariat” . In the course of the election campaign, Westenthaler caused a stir with the demand that 300,000 foreigners be deported. All other parties (with the exception of the FPÖ) described his proposal as xenophobic and heavily criticized it. On August 30, 2008, he was replaced by Jörg Haider as chairman of the alliance.

On June 18, 2009, Peter Westenthaler was sentenced to six months of conditional imprisonment for false testimony. This suspended sentence has been expired since June 18, 2012.

In May 2010 he successfully completed a six-month course for real estate agents and then gained practical experience with befriended real estate agents.

In November 2013 Westenthaler founded his own consulting company. He works as a real estate, PR and political advisor.

In April 2017 Westenthaler became the publishing director of the monthly magazine “ Alles Roger? “, Which is published by Ronald Seunig, the owner of the Excalibur City shopping center on the Czech border near Kleinhaugsdorf, with a circulation of 200,000 throughout Austria.

Westenthaler has been a political analyst for the private TV broadcaster Oe24.tv since February 2018. He appears there several times a week as an expert in the current news programs and can be seen every Wednesday on Fellner Live. He is also a columnist for the daily newspaper “Österreich”, where his column appears every Tuesday.

"Crescent Affair"

In the election campaign for the 2006 National Council election, a letter presented by BZÖ boss Peter Westenthaler in a TV duel with SPÖ chairman Alfred Gusenbauer resulted in legal action. The Austrian Alpine Association ( OeAV ) and the Vienna SPÖ councilor Omar Al-Rawi then sued the BZÖ.

Westenthaler had quoted a - as it later turned out, fictitious - reply letter from the Austrian Alpine Club to Al-Rawi, in which it was about setting up crescent moons instead of crosses on the Austrian mountain peaks . Later, a group of artists confessed to the letter, which, in addition to Westenthaler, had also been sent to FPÖ chairman Heinz-Christian Strache and to Hans Dichand ( Kronen Zeitung ).

Criminal proceedings

Conviction for false testimony

Christoph Pöchinger, press spokesman for Justice Minister Karin Gastinger , who left the BZÖ just before the elections , accuses Westenthaler's bodyguard, Siegfried Kobal, of having beaten him up on election evening in the presence of Westenthaler and at his request. Westenthaler denies this representation. On October 30, 2006, the public prosecutor's office withdrew the complaint because Westenthaler could not prove that he had intended coercion with his statements. The public prosecutor described this as "expressions of discontent caused by alcohol and milieu".

After West Thaler's former bodyguard on 20 March 2007 in the matter of assault and coercion to four months conditional imprisonment and payment of a pain and suffering had been convicted, proceedings have been initiated against Westenthaler because his statements in the trial of the bodyguard by the prosecutor as a deliberate false statement count were. Westenthaler denied having spoken to the police that night, although two officers could remember a conversation with him. The National Council lifted Westenthaler's parliamentary immunity, and the proceedings began on June 11, 2008. Peter Westenthaler pleaded “not guilty”. On July 29, 2008, he was illegally sentenced to nine months' 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. On June 18, 2012, both the probation period and the redemption period for this judgment ended.

Conviction for serious fraud and breach of trust

From October 2014 to March 2015, a criminal case against Westenthaler took place in the Vienna Regional Court on suspicion of serious fraud and breach of trust. Westenthaler, who denied the charges, was accused of misusing special grants as a Bundesliga board member. He was also accused that a paper prepared by the BZÖ agency Orange on the subject of player protection, which was commissioned by Austrian Lotteries, was not worth the price of 300,000 euros. Westenthaler deliberately participated in a breach of trust at the expense of Casinos Austria.

On March 6, 2015, Westenthaler was not legally acquitted on all points. The judge in charge did not see the ÖFB deceived and the league clubs not damaged. The subsidies were used “entirely in line with the funding purpose”. The judge found “no evidence at all [...] that Westenthaler was behind it” on the allegation of infidelity.

On March 3, 2016, it became known that the Supreme Court had overturned the acquittal.

In the repeated trial, Westenthaler was sentenced to two and a half years of partially conditional imprisonment on January 13, 2017, although he can only apply for an ankle cuff after five months in prison. Westenthaler appealed the judgment. However, the Supreme Court upheld the guilty verdict in October 2017. With regard to the extent of the sentence, the proceedings were referred to the Vienna Higher Regional Court . In March 2018, this reduced the sentence to 24 months, of which 8 months were unconditionally pronounced. He can apply for an ankle cuff after four months at the earliest. The court justified this with the fact that Westenthaler had used his position as a former top politician to carry out the incriminated acts. In order to avoid imprisonment, Westenthaler's lawyer announced in April 2018 that he would appeal to the General Procuratorate to appeal against the law . This would enable Westenthaler to request an ankle shackle as soon as he arrives in prison. At the beginning of May 2018, the Vienna Criminal Court granted a stay of detention until August 20, 2018 in order to “be able to organize his representation in an adequate manner and to be able to guarantee him a return to employment even after his release from prison”. He started his sentence on August 20, 2018 in the Vienna Simmering Prison .

Westenthaler was released from prison on January 31, 2019.

Trivia

In the space novel “Alles klappt nie” (2005) by the Austrian author Martin Amanshauser , who is set in 2020, one of the central characters is an ex-politician named Westenthaler, in the book the secretary of a tycoon named Stronach .

Awards (excerpt)

Web links

Commons : Peter Westenthaler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ There are several sources for both spellings, Slovene (with Hatschek ) and Germanized; with Hatschek z. B. fm4 (ORF) and Der Standard , German spelling according to OTS and date ( memento of the original from February 21, 2014 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. ; the father was buried as Karl Hojac (see search cemetery Oberlaa ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.date.at
  2. ↑ Source: http://www.wescon.at
  3. ^ ORF : Say my name. April 6, 2010
  4. ^ Intervention act Peter W .: List of attempted interventions at ORF ( Memento from June 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Peter Westenthaler in the Hall of Shame 2001. on: bigbrotherawards.at
  6. ↑ Florian Klenk : "We bought ourselves there" - The BZÖ State Secretary reveals the calculation of the Nazi restitution. In: The time . September 21, 2006.
  7. ↑ Mainoni - the unabridged interview from the gut of the FPÖ. ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 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. on: florianklenk.com Long version of the interview with Oliver Geden, which caused a stir during the 2006 election campaign @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.florianklenk.com
  8. ↑ Contact at allesroger.at
  9. ↑ TV duel for NR election 2006 on ORF: Forged letter presented by Westenthaler. ( Memento of the original from June 17, 2007 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.at @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.orf.at
  10. ↑ Trial against Peter Westenthaler begins. ORF, June 11, 2008
  11. ↑ Ex-bodyguard charges BZÖ boss. ( Memento of the original from June 14, 2008 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, June 11, 2008 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.orf.at
  12. ^ Final in the Westenthaler trial on July 29th. ORF, July 25, 2008
  13. ↑ Nine months conditionally for Westenthaler. ORF, July 29, 2008
  14. ↑ Guilty verdict confirmed for Westenthaler. ORF, June 18, 2009
  15. ^ Lottery and Bundesliga: Double acquittal for Westenthaler. In: The Standard . derStandard.at GmbH, March 6, 2015, accessed on May 1, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Westenthaler process must be repeated. In: Small newspaper . March 3, 2016, accessed March 3, 2016 .
  17. ↑ Two and a half years imprisonment for Westenthaler. In: ORF. January 13, 2017. Retrieved January 13, 2017 .
  18. ^ OGH confirms judgments against Westenthaler. In: ORF. October 8, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Westenthaler flashed an appeal against a guilty verdict. In: The Standard. October 8, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Peter Westenthaler has to go to prison for at least four months. In: The press. March 13, 2018, accessed March 13, 2018 .
  21. ↑ Four months absolutely for Westenthaler. In: ORF. March 13, 2018, accessed March 13, 2018 .
  22. ↑ Peter Westenthaler has to go to prison within one month. Retrieved April 11, 2018 .
  23. ^ Postponement of detention for Peter Westenthaler. In: ORF. May 2, 2018, accessed May 2, 2018 .
  24. ↑ Peter Westenthaler has started his prison sentence. In: Courier Online. August 20, 2018, accessed on August 21, 2018 (German).
  25. ^ Media: Westenthaler has started imprisonment. In: ORF. August 20, 2018, accessed on August 21, 2018 (German).
  26. ↑ Source: https://www.oe24.at/oesterreich/chronik/Peter-Westenthaler-ist-ein-freier-Mann/366087176
  27. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
  28. ↑ Parliamentary correspondence via AP-OTS: High medals for Angela Orthner and Peter Westenthaler President Khol presents great golden decorations with the star. December 14, 2005
personal data
SURNAME Westenthaler, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hojač, Peter (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician (FPÖ, BZÖ), member of the state parliament, member of the National Council, convicted criminal
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna