In the advertising affair that cost Sebastian Kurz the office of Austrian Chancellor, the opinion researcher Sabine Beinschab, who is said to have been involved in the alleged machinations, was apparently arrested early on Tuesday.

This is reported by several Austrian media.

The reason is therefore a risk of darkening.

Stephan Löwenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

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The head of the "Research Affairs" institute was one of the people who were searched last week, as well as in the Chancellery, the Ministry of Finance, the publishing house of the tabloid media Austria "and in the party headquarters of the ÖVP.

According to reports from newspapers such as the Presse, Kronen-Zeitung, Kurier and the Standard, the investigators have now found that a large amount of data had been deleted on the data carriers and servers of the pollster shortly before the raid. 

Briefly missing a parliamentary session

The Economic and Corruption Public Prosecutor's Office (WKStA) is investigating the suspicion that supporters of Kurz have placed advertisements for the Ministry of Finance in the media of “Austria” since 2016 and that the reports agreed upon were published there, all in favor of the political rise of the future Chancellor. The main content of the reports - so it says in the search order - were surveys by "Research Affairs" and statements by Beinschab, which were also "tweaked" in the sense of short. Beinschab had discussed in detail a system of bogus invoices for the costs of these party-politically motivated surveys with the then top official in the Ministry of Finance, Thomas Schmid. Schmid mentioned this in one of his cell phone chats, on which the WKStA relies,from a "Beinschab Austria Tool". 

The tabloid Austria has rejected the allegation of collateralised reports and advertising corruption. Kurz denied having knowledge of any dishonest machinations. Nevertheless, under pressure from the Green coalition partner and apparently also forces in his own party, especially ÖVP state governors, he resigned from the office of Chancellor at the weekend. But he remains party chairman and wants to take up his parliamentary mandate to also lead the ÖVP parliamentary group.

Kurz did not yet take part in the special session on Tuesday in which Kurz's successor Alexander Schallenberg and his successor as Foreign Minister, Michael Linhart, presented themselves to parliament because he does not want to take up the mandate until the end of this week.

His absence was sharply criticized by the opposition.

In his inaugural address, Schallenberg affirmed that he wanted to work closely with Kurz and continue on his course.