ORF-E
English
1 x 52 min
Worldwide

In the mid-1980s, Austria was rocked by one of the biggest political scandals of the Second Republic. Two investigative journalists discovered in what was then Yugoslavia that a subsidiary of the nationalized Voestalpine was conducting secret arms deals with Iran. It soon became clear that the Noricum company’s exports of artillery violate the War Material Act and are strictly prohibited due to Austria’s neutrality. When the affair came to light and prominent managers and former members of the government ended up in the dock, politicians claimed to have known nothing. In truth, Kreisky and Sinowatz regarded arms exports as an instrument to push Austria’s Middle East policy. The Voest arms dealers were willing to break the law on behalf of the Republic, so to speak, to save the ailing Voest and its tens of thousands of jobs. But now – decades later – decision-makers at the time are breaking their silence.