Austrian panel to probe six political scandals

Sep 30, 2011, 18:11 GMT

Vienna - Austria's parliament decided Friday to probe six areas of alleged corruption that could have painful consequences for most of the country's parties.

The five parties in parliament agreed to what media have dubbed the 'monster enquiry panel,' a committee that will deal with all of the scandals, Austrian press agency APA reported.

Social Democratic Chancellor Werner Faymann is at the centre of one of the controversies.

He allegedly ordered state-owned companied to book advertisements when he was transport minister in 2007, in order to curry political favour with tabloid newspapers.

'The allegations are baseless,' Faymann said Friday, rejecting documents and testimonies that have recently surfaced and that seem to corroborate the accusations.

The panel, which has not starting date yet, is also set to look into advertising campaigns by other politicians, going as far back as the year 2000.

The other alleged scandals mostly focus on former ministers of the far-right Freedom Party and the Alliance for the Future of Austria, as well as the centre-right People's Party.

The panel is to look into possible bribery by several companies and investors in return for favourable gambling and telecommunications legislation, for being contracts with the finance and the interior ministries, and for granting Austrian citizenship.

Political experts have warned that the panel cannot deal with such a huge agenda, and that the cases will therefore not be adequately cleared up on the political level.

However, politicians might face legal consequences. Public prosecutors have already started investigating.