Austrian leader investigated over bribery claims as ministries raided

‘The raids on ministries show that the party’s house of cards is noisily collapsing’

AUSTRIA’S chancellor has been placed under investigation over claims that government money was used to ensure positive newspaper coverage in a scandal that could bring down the government.

In the latest legal headache for Sebastian Kurz and his Right-wing People’s Party (OEVP), prosecutors raided offices at two government ministries as party of their inquiries.

The investigation is exploring claims that from 2016 to 2018 the government paid for advertisements in a tabloid in exchange for polling and coverage favourable to Mr Kutz when he was foreign minister and went on to become party leader.

He is under investigation along with nine other individuals and three organisations on suspicion of breach of trust, corruption and bribery. Prosecutors claim that an unnamed media company “received payments” in return for publishing the polls.

The company in question has not been officially named, but has been widely identified in Austria media as the Oesterreich tabloid.

The group that runs the newspaper released a statement denying that any wrongdoing had been committed in the commissioning or publication of its surveys.

There has been no direct reaction from Mr Kurz, who was placed under investigation for perjury in May.

However, other OEVP politicians have dismissed the raids as “politically motivated”.

The main opposition Social Democrats said the raids demonstrated that the OEVP’S “house of cards was noisily collapsing”.