Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is under investigation for "aiding and abetting corruption". The newspapers Die Presse and Der Standard write it on their news portals.
Close collaborators of the popular party leader Oevp, especially the press staff, are also being investigated.
The investigation concerns polls published by the newspaper "Oesterreich" and by the private TV "oe24", both owned by the Fellner family. These polls would be paid for by the finance ministry, but "exclusively for party purposes".
Investigators also want to be clear on the expenditure of 1.3 million euros for media ads owned by the Fellner family.
The searches in the Chancellery and in the headquarters of the OVP took place this morning in Vienna, a party that rejects the accusations and harshly criticizes the investigators: "After the false accusations against Kurz ... whose groundlessness is now proven - the party contests - now new ones are being built accusations on events that in part date back to five years ago ".
"All this always happens with the same goal and system: to seriously damage the Volkspartei and Sebastian Kurz", reads a statement.
(Unioneonline / vl)
