And sometimes with a lot of pathos and emotion. The day of the house search, which also took place in his apartment in Vienna on October 6, 2021, was “burnt into his soul like a black seal”; He “fell deeply and ended up in the arms of his family,” writes the 44-year-old Tyrolean.
He also doesn’t shy away from criticizing the investigating WKStA (economic and corruption public prosecutor). This turned his parents’ house in Tyrol “upside down” and even confiscated his 15-year-old godchild’s tablet. Even a detective is said to have told him privately that he thought the house search was “excessive and excessive.”
The father of three explains vividly over long stretches how the cause plunged him into a deep psychological crisis and how he had almost slipped into burnout beforehand. A lot of space is also given to stories about his wife and his three children, who live in Germany, and the challenges that his workload and weekly commute would have presented.
He is keeping a low profile about the criminal allegations “also on the advice of lawyers”. Thomas Schmid only appears briefly in three places, other actors from the advertisement case not at all.
“Kicked” out of the coalition
Kurz, who took over the ÖVP in May 2017, restructured it and led it to election victories again, is described by him as a “good person and a fine boss”.
Someone who covers him and turns off the light as he nods off on a cot during the pandemic.
Who stands in front of his door in jeans and a T-shirt and with a six-pack of beer and cheers him up, Frischmann, when he, Kurz, has just given up the chancellor’s chair because the Greens “kicked” him out of the coalition after the aforementioned raid.
“Murderers” and “Terrorists”
Speaking of the Greens: While the former chancellor spokesman describes the coalition with the FPÖ in a strikingly positive way (apart from their handling of “individual cases” such as rat poems and song books), he obviously has little left for the Greens:
For example, he describes how they insisted on vegetarian food during the coalition negotiations, but then mostly had roast pork on their plates.
In addition, I have Werner Kogler first want to talk about the distribution of ministries and positions instead of content. “This double standard from the Greens stinks to high heaven even before the negotiations begin.”
A scene from the negotiations on the migration issue is also piquant – the most ideologically sensitive issue between green and turquoise. Frischmann says, for example, that a green negotiator said: “You are murderers,” while a turquoise negotiator countered: “And you are terrorists because you let everyone into Europe.”
The Neos, with whom the ÖVP and SPÖ are currently exploring, appeared “cocky” after the 2019 election. A three-party coalition was also considered back then – between the ÖVP, Neos and the Greens. But Kogler, Frischmann writes, categorically rejected this.
Johannes Frischmann: “Power and powerlessness in the Chancellery”, published by Seifert Verlag, 336 pages, 28 euros.