Vienna Airport and Helga Krismer exchange blows again

The Lower Austrian politician Helga Krismer-Huber (Greens) and Flughafen Wien AG have once again exchanged blows over media releases. The Green Party, together with a colleague in the state parliament, called for the Court of Auditors to inspect Austria's largest airport.

The airport promptly countered and accused the two MPs of having a “shameful lack of knowledge”. The involvement of the public sector would be too low for the Court of Auditors to be responsible. Furthermore: “In the government program of the Greens and ÖVP (page 20) it is agreed for good reasons that listed stock corporations in which the public sector holds less than 50% but more than 25% may not be audited by the Court of Auditors. The demand of the two Green MPs for an audit of the largely private Flughafen Wien AG clearly contradicts their own government program, so the two are demanding a break with the green-turquoise government program. According to the Constitutional Court's findings, there is no actual control by the public shareholders at Flughafen Wien AG and the public shareholding is only 40%, which is why the Court of Auditors is not responsible for auditing. To derive from this the claim that the company is not adequately controlled reveals an almost grotesque ignorance of stock corporation law and the actual circumstances.”