NR Election: Court of Audit Found No Cost Violations
The review of the FPÖ's election campaign report is still ongoing. The ÖVP came closest to the legal campaign spending limit of 8.66 million euros, spending 7.9 million euros on the campaign, followed by FPÖ and SPÖ.
NEOS with "only" 3.5 million campaign expenses into the government
According to their election campaign report, the Freedom Party spent 7.2 million euros on the campaign. The SPÖ spent 7 million, followed by the Greens with a notable 6.6 million euros in campaign expenses, while the NEOS were significantly more frugal with 3.5 million. The KPÖ spent 880,000 euros on the national election campaign. Various objections by the Court of Audit regarding the parties' election campaign reports were resolved during the review process. Only the Beer Party had to correct the amount of their advertising costs - but downwards. After personnel costs were significantly overstated, the official campaign expenses of the small party, which failed to clear the four-percent hurdle, dropped from the initially reported 500,000 to ultimately 300,000 euros.
Review process for FPÖ still ongoing
The review process for the FPÖ is still ongoing. There are still questions to be clarified, it was said on Friday from the Court of Audit. There is no deadline for the review. However, the FPÖ is in a legal dispute with the Court of Audit over the campaign expenses for the EU election, which took place in June of the previous year. The Court of Audit has approached the Constitutional Court (VfGH) after the FPÖ refused to allow access to documents for the review of the election campaign report, arguing that the legal basis is unconstitutional.
According to the party law tightened in 2022, parties must submit their reports on actual campaign costs in the 82 days before the election six months after the election, broken down to the Court of Audit. The Court of Audit then reviews the reports and can request documents, and on-site inspections are also possible.
(APA/Red)
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