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An Austrian judge at the center of a corruption scandal enveloping Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his center-right party resigned following the publication of a series of text messages containing sexist and racist language.
Wolfgang Brandstetter, a former justice minister sent by Kurz to the constitutional court in 2018, announced his decision late Thursday, saying he believed he could “best serve” the court by leaving it. Chief Justice Christoph Grabenwarter said he was “shocked and dismayed” by the messages and that he hoped Brandstetter’s resignation would allow the court to draw a line under the matter.
The texts, which were exchanged between Brandstetter and Christian Pilnacek, a senior civil servant in the justice ministry, are full of derogatory comments, some with racial overtones, about female members of the constitutional court and the corruption prosecutors pursuing Kurz’s government. Just as alarming, the communications include attacks on the Austrian judiciary that cast doubt on the top officials’ commitment to the very rule of law they vowed to uphold.
The chats came to light as part of a sweeping criminal investigation into suspected corruption in Kurz’s center-right People’s Party (ÖVP). A number of senior officials, including Kurz himself, who is suspected of perjury, have come under the scrutiny of prosecutors, but Brandstetter is the first to resign, a move that signals the scandal is inching ever closer to the chancellor’s inner circle.
All of those under investigation deny doing anything illegal.
In the course of the probe, investigators have discovered thousands of text message exchanges between top government officials, drawing back the curtain on a political machine built on patronage that critics say is undermining the country’s democratic foundations, in particular the rule of law and freedom of the press.
In one of the text exchanges that came to light this week, Brandstetter and Pilnacek in October joked about news that Cuba had acquired decommissioned Austrian trash trucks.
Pilnacek suggested that it might be necessary to “export the constitutional court to Cuba,” adding that the Cubans “would be proud of our vice president.”
The vice president of Austria’s constitutional court, Verena Madner, is Black.
Pilnacek went on to say that another female member of the court, Claudia Kahr, “would be a good trashwoman.”
The two men are among the most senior judicial officials in the country with immense power over legal decisions. Pilnacek, who is under investigation for alleged perjury and other misconduct, was considered the most influential official in the justice ministry until his recent suspension as part of the corruption probe. He is challenging his suspension and insists he did nothing wrong.
The power he enjoyed notwithstanding, the chats suggest Pilnacek had all but lost faith in the legal system in which he’d spent his career working.
In December, after the court overturned a government ban on head scarves and decided to permit assisted suicide, Pilnacek concluded “one can no longer serve a judicial system being led astray by the constitutional court.”
He was also upset with the office of the corruption prosecutor, telling Brandstetter that it “was and is a problem.”
At the time, Pilnacek was seeking permission to tap into the corruption prosecutor’s email accounts, according to separate chats he had with his subordinates. It’s not clear if he succeeded. That same office is now investigating both Pilnacek and Brandstetter.
Brandstetter, who in 2018 served as a special adviser to European Commissioner Věra Jourová on rule-of-law issues, also freely shared confidential information with Pilnacek about the court’s pending decisions and internal deliberations, the latter of which are supposed to remain secret for 30 years.
As part of their probe, prosecutors are investigating whether Pilnacek warned Brandstetter in 2019 that authorities were about to search the premises of a prominent legal client of his.
Both men deny any wrongdoing.
Indeed, the chats between the two lawyers are full of boastful language that they would ultimately prevail.
Or, as Brandstetter like to sign off in the exchanges: “Venceremos!”
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