The dismissal of three generals by Defense Minister Thomas Starlinger continues to draw circles. Following a statement on the Causa in the Bundesrat last week, the Federal Armed Forces Union Free Trade Union of Austria (FGÖ) Starlinger now accuses the lie. In addition, the association believes that the minister has broken his official secrecy. The ministry did not want to comment on the allegations.
Starlinger had spoken in a speech in the Federal Council on the dismissal of three generals who had been ordered by his predecessor Mario Kunasek (FPÖ) in the spring, commented. The dismissal he called the „restoration of a legal condition“.
Starlinger: No time for trial
According to Starlinger, the order was not legally compliant because it had not been countersigned in time by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen. This in turn happened because Van der Bellen did not have enough time for a test and assessment: According to Starlinger, the command was scheduled for a Friday afternoon, the documents to be signed in a closed envelope, however, only arrived on Thursday evening at the porter of the Presidential Chancellery.
Although the authorities knew that the signature was missing, the command transfer had been carried out as planned, criticized Starlinger. The notifications were nevertheless created – „including transport“, so Starlinger.
All three officers are said to have exercised their new positions since the beginning of April. „According to the motto: We do what we want, the Federal President will already sign,“ Starlinger complained the procedure. According to him, there is also the suspicion of abuse of office in the room, which now has to be reviewed.
FGÖ sees lies
The FGÖ was angry at Starlinger’s speech over the weekend. The FGÖ concludes „that Starlinger has not only broken the secrecy under the tender law and perhaps also official secrecy“, but also „the work of the evaluation commission“ and „the activity of the central committee (…) discredited,“ said the liberal Federal Armed Forces Manfred Haidinger in a broadcast with.
„Besides, Starlinger is lying, because none of the ‚three generals‘ is already back to work,“ said Haidinger. „Austria is a constitutional state, that does not work out as Starlinger might imagine. We do not live in a dictatorship where the dictator gets up in the morning and says that today I am dismissing three generals, „said Haidinger.
