The pollster Sabine B. and her institute Reserach Affairs are at the centre of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) scandal. In addition to B., ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his closest colleagues and ex-Family Minister Sophie Karmasin (all ÖVP), who is also working in the polling business, are listed as defendants. Her co-accused are afraid of B., especially since she may have turned state witness – apparently during her short-term imprisonment because of the danger of collusion.
For years, there was a remarkable consonance between B.’s polls and the ideas of the People’s Party. Whatever the ÖVP proposed was enthusiastically supported by the citizens in B.’s polls. And if not, then the figures were fudged, the public prosecutor’s office claims. And according to investigations, the taxpayer was allowed to pay for this charade, because the Ministry of Finance is said to have paid the invoices, which were also rigged.
But Sabine B. not only worked for the Ministry of Finance and for the Austria Media Group, for which she regularly conducted election polls, but also carried out her own studies. For example, in January 2020, when the coronavirus was known to Austrians from media reports, but had by no means been in evidence in Austria.
The results of this study are groundbreaking for the hysteria that Sebastian Kurz in particular, who is now accused together with B., stirred up at the latest from mid-March – the time of the first lockdown. And this despite the fact that they are extremely meaningless and were only conducted with a very small sample of people ( 500 people between the ages of 16 and 69), exclusively online. However, B. himself commented on them in a press release with the meaningful sentence:
The survey shows that this issue is very concerning to the population.
“43% of Austrians worry about being infected by the coronavirus”, is one of the striking conclusions drawn by B.. In reality, only 7 per cent were strongly worried, another 36 per cent only “somewhat worried”.
“The (sic!) coronavirus influences the behaviour of Austrians. Politicians are expected to take clear measures,” is another conclusion, although only a few respondents actually said they avoided crowds or public transport because of the media reports.
The only high level of agreement was the statement that people follow reports about Corona in the media and the rather generally formulated call to politicians to protect Austria. “I expect politicians to take swift measures to protect Austria from the corona virus.” – This banal sentence was agreed with by 41 percent very much and another 41 percent somewhat.No wonder: who expects politics to be inactive in the face of possible threats?
For the People’s Party and its Green coalition partner, this survey, which was widely reported in the media, should be reason enough to take the whole country hostage – starting with a hard lockdown that is unconstitutional in many parts – in a Corona hostage situation that is reaching a new low today with the 3G compulsion at the workplace.
That these were the “swift measures” that the citizens interviewed by Sabine B. in January 2020 wanted may be doubted.