Disoriented detractor or believer betrayed by his idol? Former government councilor Thomas Schmid, who devoted himself entirely to Chancellor Sebastian Kurz from 2017 to 2021 and bombarded him with text messages, is scheduled to appear before a parliamentary commission of inquiry on Thursday after cooperating with anti-corruption prosecutors.
“I’ve never gone as far as we’re going now.” Or, addressed directly to the person concerned: “I love him, my chancellor.” Large parts of Austria can now recite Thomas Schmid’s text messages by heart, which are sent via instant messaging with exchanged with the then Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and some of his relatives. However, the former senior official was a man in the shadows before the revelation of those messages drew media attention to his personality.
The 47-year-old lawyer is scheduled to appear before a parliamentary commission of inquiry of the National Council, the lower house of Austrian power, on Thursday. MEPs are trying to untangle the threads of a web of corruption cases uncovered in the wake of the so-called Ibiza scandal that led to the fall of the first Kurz government in May 2019. The focus of the file: the messages from Thomas Schmid. They have been determining the political life of the Alpine Republic for more than a year and a half. But its author has so far been conspicuous by his absence.
300,000 messages full of emoticons
How did Thomas Schmid’s SMS get into the newspapers? In order to clarify the Ibiza scandal, the Austrian financial and anti-corruption prosecutor ordered a series of searches in 2019. At the end of the year, investigators confiscated the Tyrolean’s phone and a hard drive, after which around 300,000 messages full of emoticons were added to the court file. The lawyers of the numerous parties involved in the proceedings therefore have access to them and do not hesitate to pass these documents on discreetly to Austrian journalists.
Corruption, embezzlement, abuse of power… The public is becoming aware of the extent of the suspicion hanging over Thomas Schmid. Business leaders, press owners and several women and politicians can be found in it, led by the young star of the conservative ÖVP party, Sebastian Kurz. He finds himself in the sights of a judicial investigation. His second government fell in October 2021. Since then, the former Austrian leader’s line of defense has been to minimize what he knew about the actions of Thomas Schmid, who allegedly acted on his own.
Schmid is silent. He flees the scandal to the Netherlands and refuses to go to the multiple summonses of the parliamentary commission. But two weeks ago clap of thunder. A new document is added to the file: a statement signed by Thomas Schmid, more than 450 pages long. We learn that the exile was kept in top secret last summer – even his lawyer at the time was not aware of it. In addition, the fascinating Penitent is now ready to answer questions from parliamentarians. In his testimony, he admits to numerous wrongdoings, including embezzling public funds to buy favorable media coverage for Kurz, but he refuses to take the blame alone and hands investigators new evidence in hopes of leniency.
Total Devotion
The challenge for the judiciary is to assess the credibility of these “confessions”. While Kurz’s defense attorneys portray Schmid as a liar willing to commit further dishonesty to avoid jail time, some see his mea culpa as an expression of the surrender of an ego humiliated by the unwrapping of his text messages and then his former idol being released in mid-air.
Because Thomas Schmid gives the impression of complete devotion to Sebastian Kurz in his writings, typed with the tips of his thumb. Alluding to the old emperors’ strict guard, he claims to be “one of them [ses] Praetorian” who “decides [ses] Problems” and even describes himself as a “galley slave” in the service of the young curator. Schmid, who studied law and political science, was Chief of Staff from 2013 and then Secretary General in the Ministry of Finance.
When Sebastian Kurz, who became foreign minister that same year in 2013, began his scheming to become chancellor, the dedicated finance secretary-general would have come in very handy. He is said not only to have embezzled funds from his ministry, but also to have given out favors and prominent positions, and even intervened with the financial authorities at the request of the young politician’s allies. In 2019, Schmid was finally appointed by the government to head a public holding company, which is now managed by Kurz. Reward for faithful service? In this position, he received a very high salary until his resignation, when the scandal broke in June 2021.
Thomas Schmid’s last secrets have not yet been revealed. In the published version of his testimony, investigators crossed out large portions of it in black, a sign that they are following leads that have yet to remain confidential. Austria can expect new political developments in the coming months. They could shake the National Council this Thursday.