Austrian government cannot be trusted with intelligence due to far-right links, German security service warns

Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution worried far-right ministers could pass information to Russia

An election campaign poster shows far-right Freedom Party (FPO) leader Heinz-Christian Strache (Reuters)

Germany’s security services have warned officials against sharing intelligence with the Austrian government because of the presence of a far-right party in its governing coalition.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) warned there is a “considerable risk” that sensitive information could be passed to Russia or otherwise misused.

German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported that Thomas Haldenwang, the president of the BfV, had “expressed his suspicions” to Austrian authorities.

“The background is the assumption that Austria could misuse and, if necessary, forward to Russia information that it receives from actual partner countries such as Germany,” Welt reported.

Austria’s government is a coalition between the conservative Austrian People’s Party (OVP) and the far-right Freedom Party (FPO). The country is facing a snap election after a sting revealed that the leader of the FPO, Heinz-Christian Strache, appeared to corruptly offer government contracts in exchange for favourable media coverage.

Austria’s president has recommended that elections be held in September, after the collapse of the governing coalition at the weekend and resignation of Mr Strache as interior minister over the allegations.

Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s chancellor from the OVP, said he had found it “difficult to swallow” aspects of being in coalition with the far-right group.

In September 2018 it was revealed that the far-right controlled Austrian interior ministry had sent police a list of critical media outlets whose access should be restricted. The country’s interior minister also sparked outrage by saying migrants should be “concentrated”.

In the sting, which was first reported in German media but whose provenance is unknown, the FPO leader tells a supposed Russian billionaire that he wants to “build a media landscape like [Viktor] Orban” – a reference to Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister.

In the footage, filmed at a villa on the Spanish island of Ibiza, a woman offers to buy a controlling stake in the country’s largest newspaper and change its editorial position to favour his party.

“If you take over the Kronen Zeitung three weeks before the election and get us into first place, then we can talk about everything,” Mr Strache said.

“All the government orders that Strabag [an Austrian construction firm] gets now, [you] would get,” he continues.

Other EU countries have so far been reticent to impose sanctions on Austria for the far-right party’s participation in government, in contrast to their reaction to a similar situation in the 1990s when a brief diplomatic boycott was imposed.