Senior Austrian conservative quits after conviction for misuse of office

VIENNA, May 4 (Reuters) - The parliamentary ‌leader of Austria's ruling ​conservatives, ​August Woeginger, stepped down on Monday moments after a court convicted him of misuse of office and handed him a seven-month suspended prison sentence and a ‌43,200 euro ($50,600) fine.

The case centred on Woeginger's intervention on behalf of a mayor ⁠from his party who was applying for the position of head of the local tax office in Braunau am ‌Inn, on the German border.

The ‌ruling could be a watershed moment in Austrian politics as it penalises officials allegedly involved in appointing a party loyalist over a more qualified candidate, in a country where two ​centrist parties carved up most top administrative posts between them for decades after World War Two.

Woeginger, a top figure in Chancellor Christian Stocker's Austrian People's Party (OVP), has maintained his ⁠innocence and said he never meant to exert undue influence, but also that in retrospect he would not do the same ​thing again.

"While I still expect to be acquitted on appeal, I will nevertheless - regardless of further legal steps - resign from my post of OVP parliamentary ​leader with immediate effect," Woeginger said in a ‌statement, adding that he planned to stay on as an OVP lawmaker.

Woeginger had spoken about the mayor's candidacy to the then top civil servant in ⁠the finance ministry, OVP loyalist Thomas Schmid, who allegedly worked with two members of a committee that reviewed candidates for the job to promote the mayor's candidacy.

Those two committee members were co-defendants in the case ⁠and both were convicted of misuse of office and perjury, and handed the same seven-month suspended sentence as ​Woeginger along with smaller fines. Schmid turned state witness in this and other cases involving his former OVP allies.

The mayor was awarded the job over a better qualified candidate, who filed a complaint.

The ruling is ‌a blow to the OVP, which has stayed in power since its then-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was forced to quit in 2021 over corruption allegations ‌he denies. The OVP now heads a three-party coalition in which each member is trailing the far-right ⁠Freedom Party in opinion polls.

"It is ‌a verdict at first instance ​with a very harsh sentence," Chancellor Stocker said in a statement. "Personally, I would have wished August Woeginger an acquittal."

($1 = 0.8538 euros)

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by ‌Susan Fenton)

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