Karl-Heinz Grasser
Encyclopedia
Karl-Heinz Grasser is a former Austria
n politician (FPÖ
member at first, later associated with, but never officially a member of, the ÖVP
) who held the office of Austrian Minister of Finance from February 2000 to January 2007 as a member of the two subsequent governments of Wolfgang Schüssel
. While at the time praised by many for consolidating Austria´s budget, he has since then been known for his alleged involvment in major corruption scandals. For some time, he was also some kind of a jet set
person after marrying Fiona Swarovski, heir of the Swarovski
crystal manufactury.
, Carinthia
, where he studied business administration
at the University of Klagenfurt
from 1988 to 1992. He soon joined the far right nationalist Austrian Freedom Party and became the second deputy governor
of Carinthia in 1994, but after a dispute with his mentor
, Jörg Haider
, he left politics to work for Magna
Europe as a vice president for human resources
and public relations
.
, when a coalition was formed between the Austrian People's Party
and the Freedom Party. At that time he was the youngest minister of finance ever to hold office in Austria. When the coalition broke up in 2002, Grasser left his party, but following national elections in November and the reestablishment of the coalition under the lead of a strengthened People's Party, Grasser again became minister, this time being nominated by the People's Party.
Grasser remains a controversial figure. While supporters argue that he successfully consolidated Austria's budget deficit, critics see him as incompetent and an opportunist
. Although he has recently attempted to distance himself from his past in the Freedom Party he is still seen by many as far-right leaning. Grasser's policies and philosophy as a finance minister suggest a neoliberal stance. He is a self-proclaimed follower of the Austrian School of Economics. His immaculate appearance, his smooth-talking dynamism and yuppie
antics have made him hugely popular with the public. During the early year of his tenure as Finance minister, he was generally perceived as the young and competent figure needed to shake up the traditional ways of the ruling parties that were becoming increasingly unpopular. From early on in Grasser's tenure as Finance Minister there have been recurring suspicions of back room deals between Grasser and some of his political and business friends. The first major case was the affair behind the financing of Grasser's personal homepage in 2004. Meanwhile, in January 2011, new and continuing investigations by Austrian District Attorneys into suspicions of kick-back schemes and backroom deals and, in certain cases, alleged manipulation of federal spending figures to syphon money to his allies have brought Grasser in front of the Austrian media once more. These reports have been spearheaded by the Vienna City weekly Der Falter
. More details on the allegations can be found on Wikipedia in German. Grasser maintains his innocence on all counts.
Regardless of the outcome of the large number of court cases (filed by District Attorneys against Grasser and by Grasser against individuals), it seems clear that his public image as the "new-and-squeaky-clean" politician of a new era has been tarnished once and for all. After Green MP Gabriela Moser and Falter published transcripts of police recordings of Grasser's telephone conversations with one of his friends, Walter Meischberger, in which Meischberger could not describe the services for which he was paid hundreds of thousands of euros by the Porr construction company, the phrase "Was war meine Leistung?" (What was my service [for that payment]?) entered popular usage. Falter arranged a public reading of the transcripts by a group of comedians.
In Austrian quality newspapers, Grasser's case is now seen as a test of credibility for the Austrian judicial system: the legal protection from prosecution of former politicians is confronted with rumours about Grasser's alleged quagmire of corruption. It will be seen if the Austrian judicial system is up to the task. At present, in an interview by Grasser with the Austrian radio station Oe1 on 22 Jan. 2011, Grasser threatened to sue anyone who criticized his behaviour. "Nothing will come of [any law suit against me]", Grasser maintains. Instead, he is suing a number of people and announcing that he will sue others.
On May 5, 2011, new allegations have to come to light. The magazine Format quotes from police reports that Grasser, between 2005 and 2007 during his tenure as finance minister of the Republic of Austria, on three occasions personally carried "cases of cash" from Switzerland to Austria. The money was given to him, in cash, by his future mother in law, heiress to the Swarovski Crystal company, according to ZIB-2, one of Austria's most watched news programmes.
On May 26th, 2011, Austrian Finance police searched 10 of Grasser's private and business dwellings on suspicion of embezzling up to 3 million Euro from the Austrian tax system during and after his time as finance minister. Finance police removed 35 boxes of files, computers and mobile phones. If found guilty, Grasser would face up to ten years in federal prison, would have to pay back the money and face hefty fines in the million Euro range (as a percentage of the non-declared income). Grasser, who was abroad at the time of the searches, maintains his innocence. Delivering messages via his attorney to the Austrian media, Grasser describes the case as a "politically motivated act".
As of 27 May, 2011, the Austrian judiciary has not launched a court challenge against Grasser. Already, this affair has become one of the most opaque and dubious money and embezzlement schemes in the public eye. Grasser is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n politician (FPÖ
FPO
FPO may refer to:*Fleet Post Office, a "city" designation in military mail *Field post office, a term for military post offices in military mail systems *For position only, a designation for placeholder graphics...
member at first, later associated with, but never officially a member of, the ÖVP
OVP
OVP is a three-letter abbreviation that may refer to:*The Office of the Vice President of the United States*The Office of the Vice President of the Philippines*OVP , a light sub-machine gun developed in Italy...
) who held the office of Austrian Minister of Finance from February 2000 to January 2007 as a member of the two subsequent governments of Wolfgang Schüssel
Wolfgang Schüssel
Wolfgang Schüssel is an Austrian People's Party politician. He was Chancellor of Austria for two consecutive terms from February 2000 to January 2007...
. While at the time praised by many for consolidating Austria´s budget, he has since then been known for his alleged involvment in major corruption scandals. For some time, he was also some kind of a jet set
Jet set
"Jet set" is a journalistic term that was used to describe an international social group of wealthy people, organizing and participating all around the world in social activities that are unreachable to ordinary people...
person after marrying Fiona Swarovski, heir of the Swarovski
Swarovski
Swarovski is the brand name for a range of precisely-cut crystal and related luxury products produced by Swarovski AG of Wattens, Austria...
crystal manufactury.
Early career
He was born in KlagenfurtKlagenfurt
-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...
, Carinthia
Carinthia (state)
Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...
, where he studied business administration
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
at the University of Klagenfurt
University of Klagenfurt
The University of Klagenfurt was founded in 1960 in Klagenfurt, Austria. It began as a College of Educational Studies . Since October 2004 the official German name is Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt in order to stress the intercultural connections between the Alpine regions and the Adriatic Sea...
from 1988 to 1992. He soon joined the far right nationalist Austrian Freedom Party and became the second deputy governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of Carinthia in 1994, but after a dispute with his mentor
Mentor
In Greek mythology, Mentor was the son of Alcimus or Anchialus. In his old age Mentor was a friend of Odysseus who placed Mentor and Odysseus' foster-brother Eumaeus in charge of his son Telemachus, and of Odysseus' palace, when Odysseus left for the Trojan War.When Athena visited Telemachus she...
, Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two occasions, the long-time leader of the Austrian Freedom Party and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Austria , a breakaway party from the FPÖ.Haider was controversial within Austria and abroad for comments...
, he left politics to work for Magna
Magna International
Magna International Inc. , is an automotive supplier headquartered in Aurora, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's largest automobile parts manufacturer, and one of the country's largest companies. It owns the Magna Steyr automobile production company of Austria....
Europe as a vice president for human resources
Human resources
Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations...
and public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
.
Minister of Finance and alleged Corruption Scandals
However, in 2000 he returned to politicsPolitics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, when a coalition was formed between the Austrian People's Party
Austrian People's Party
The Austrian People's Party is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is similar to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in terms of ideology...
and the Freedom Party. At that time he was the youngest minister of finance ever to hold office in Austria. When the coalition broke up in 2002, Grasser left his party, but following national elections in November and the reestablishment of the coalition under the lead of a strengthened People's Party, Grasser again became minister, this time being nominated by the People's Party.
Grasser remains a controversial figure. While supporters argue that he successfully consolidated Austria's budget deficit, critics see him as incompetent and an opportunist
Opportunism
-General definition:Opportunism is the conscious policy and practice of taking selfish advantage of circumstances, with little regard for principles. Opportunist actions are expedient actions guided primarily by self-interested motives. The term can be applied to individuals, groups,...
. Although he has recently attempted to distance himself from his past in the Freedom Party he is still seen by many as far-right leaning. Grasser's policies and philosophy as a finance minister suggest a neoliberal stance. He is a self-proclaimed follower of the Austrian School of Economics. His immaculate appearance, his smooth-talking dynamism and yuppie
Yuppie
Yuppie is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early-1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late-1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession...
antics have made him hugely popular with the public. During the early year of his tenure as Finance minister, he was generally perceived as the young and competent figure needed to shake up the traditional ways of the ruling parties that were becoming increasingly unpopular. From early on in Grasser's tenure as Finance Minister there have been recurring suspicions of back room deals between Grasser and some of his political and business friends. The first major case was the affair behind the financing of Grasser's personal homepage in 2004. Meanwhile, in January 2011, new and continuing investigations by Austrian District Attorneys into suspicions of kick-back schemes and backroom deals and, in certain cases, alleged manipulation of federal spending figures to syphon money to his allies have brought Grasser in front of the Austrian media once more. These reports have been spearheaded by the Vienna City weekly Der Falter
Falter
Falter is a weekly magazine published in Vienna, Austria.Founded in 1977, it is published weekly on Wednesdays. Since Spring 2005 a local edition has also been published in Styria. The magazine reports from a broadly left-liberal perspective on politics, media, culture and the life...
. More details on the allegations can be found on Wikipedia in German. Grasser maintains his innocence on all counts.
Regardless of the outcome of the large number of court cases (filed by District Attorneys against Grasser and by Grasser against individuals), it seems clear that his public image as the "new-and-squeaky-clean" politician of a new era has been tarnished once and for all. After Green MP Gabriela Moser and Falter published transcripts of police recordings of Grasser's telephone conversations with one of his friends, Walter Meischberger, in which Meischberger could not describe the services for which he was paid hundreds of thousands of euros by the Porr construction company, the phrase "Was war meine Leistung?" (What was my service [for that payment]?) entered popular usage. Falter arranged a public reading of the transcripts by a group of comedians.
In Austrian quality newspapers, Grasser's case is now seen as a test of credibility for the Austrian judicial system: the legal protection from prosecution of former politicians is confronted with rumours about Grasser's alleged quagmire of corruption. It will be seen if the Austrian judicial system is up to the task. At present, in an interview by Grasser with the Austrian radio station Oe1 on 22 Jan. 2011, Grasser threatened to sue anyone who criticized his behaviour. "Nothing will come of [any law suit against me]", Grasser maintains. Instead, he is suing a number of people and announcing that he will sue others.
On May 5, 2011, new allegations have to come to light. The magazine Format quotes from police reports that Grasser, between 2005 and 2007 during his tenure as finance minister of the Republic of Austria, on three occasions personally carried "cases of cash" from Switzerland to Austria. The money was given to him, in cash, by his future mother in law, heiress to the Swarovski Crystal company, according to ZIB-2, one of Austria's most watched news programmes.
On May 26th, 2011, Austrian Finance police searched 10 of Grasser's private and business dwellings on suspicion of embezzling up to 3 million Euro from the Austrian tax system during and after his time as finance minister. Finance police removed 35 boxes of files, computers and mobile phones. If found guilty, Grasser would face up to ten years in federal prison, would have to pay back the money and face hefty fines in the million Euro range (as a percentage of the non-declared income). Grasser, who was abroad at the time of the searches, maintains his innocence. Delivering messages via his attorney to the Austrian media, Grasser describes the case as a "politically motivated act".
As of 27 May, 2011, the Austrian judiciary has not launched a court challenge against Grasser. Already, this affair has become one of the most opaque and dubious money and embezzlement schemes in the public eye. Grasser is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.