Austria's Conservatives fined for campaign over-spending

Austria's ruling conservative party must pay €800,000 ($890,000) in fines for excessive campaign spending in the 2017 election, a financial watchdog ruled on Wednesday.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's right-wing Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) won the parliamentary vote after spending nearly €13 million, nearly double the legal limit of €7 million.

Austria's Independent Party Transparency Senate handed a second fine of €80,000 to the Austrian People's Party for accepting donations from two publicly owned companies, which is banned.

Read more: Opinion: Sebastian Kurz, the stone-faced chancellor

Kurz won the election in 2017 and formed a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ). The coalition broke down last May after the so-called Ibiza affair, which resulted in the expulsion of senior FPÖ figures.

Following further elections in September 2019, this month Kurz returned as chancellor in a new coalition with the Green party.

Kurz and his new Cabinet were sworn in earlier in January.

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dpa contributed to this report