The Austrian Court of Audit will approach the Constitutional Court to clarify a fundamental matter related to the Political Parties Act

The Austrian Court of Audit (ACA) is currently auditing election campaign reports for the 2024 European Parliament and National Council elections – for the first time under the new Political Parties Act (Parteiengesetz). The audits of the European Parliament election campaign reports of all parties have now been concluded. With one exception.

In response to a request for documents to audit the 2024 European Parliament election campaign report, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) informed the ACA (among others) that it considers section 10 para. 4 and para. 7 of the Political Parties Act to be unconstitutional and will not comply with the request. These provisions of the Political Parties Act form part of the ACA’s new audit competence. They stipulate that political parties must provide the ACA with documents to enable it to exercise its powers of oversight. This provision also gives the ACA the possibility of carrying out audits on site.

The ACA does not consider this comprehensive audit competence pursuant to section 10 para. 4 and para. 7 of the Political Parties Act to be unconstitutional. It has therefore, as provided for in the Political Parties Act, again requested the FPÖ to submit the documents. After the FPÖ had failed to respond to the request, the ACA announced that it would conduct an on-site audit and referred to the difference of opinion between the FPÖ and the ACA. The FPÖ ultimately refused to allow the Court to conduct the audit.

To date, no other party has refused to submit documents to the ACA by claiming that the legal basis for doing so is an unconstitutional law.

The ACA will therefore approach the Constitutional Court to seek clarification on the fundamental question of whether the ACA’s audit competence pursuant to the Political Parties Act is constitutional or not. The ACA will prepare the relevant written statement in the upcoming weeks and subsequently forward it to the Constitutional Court.