New name, new boss, new home: with immediate effect, the constitution is protected by the “Directorate for State Security and Intelligence”. The previous authority had become intolerable.
“I don’t duck when it gets uncomfortable.” It was one of the first sentences that Omar Haijawi-Pirchner uttered on Tuesday as the designated head of the Directorate for State Security and Intelligence (DSN for short). Officially, the 41-year-old has only been the republic’s top constitutional protector since Wednesday. However, the Lower Austrian has been involved in the restructuring of the former Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (BVT for short) as managing project manager since June 2020.
What should be different for the DSN compared to the BVT? In short: everything. After all, according to Haijawi-Pirchner, it was the “largest constitutional reform of the Second Republic”. Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) described the Neo-DSN boss as an “outstanding investigator with sensational success in the fight against organized crime”. Haijawi-Pirchner, who was born in the Waldviertel and started his service in the former gendarmerie in 1999, has headed the Lower Austrian State Criminal Police Office for the past few years. The 41-year-old mentions one of the greatest challenges: “We have to regain trust in partner services and the public. We are on the right track, but something like this takes time.”
The DSN predecessor BVT largely gambled away this trust. Abuse of office, bribery, embezzlement of tax money, disclosure of information and sexual assault. All of these anonymously collected allegations against BVT employees led to a raid on the premises of the BVT on February 28, 2018, ordered by the Economic and Corruption Public Prosecutor’s Office (WKStA). As a result, BVT Director Peter Gridling was temporarily suspended and the events were dealt with in a parliamentary U-Committee. The BVT slid into its worst crisis, the damage to its image could hardly be repaired, resulting in international isolation.
Most recently, the failure in the terrorist attack in Vienna on November 2, 2020 became apparent. Despite information from BVT, the attacker was able to meet with other extremists and buy ammunition without any hindrance in the run-up to the attack without an adequate response.
A complete reorganization of the protection of the constitution had become inevitable. The current General Director for Public Security, Franz Ruf, carried out an inventory analysis – at that time still as Salzburg State Police Director – and was entrusted with the implementation of the constitutional protection reform.
The DSN will also have a new home: The Meidlinger barracks are to be converted into a security center, where the Federal Criminal Police Office and the cybercrime investigators will also be located. The cost of the adaptation: 600 million euros. It is not yet clear when the headquarters will be ready for occupancy. The planning could begin, the Ministry of Finance had given its okay for it. But it will take until 2025 until all permits have been obtained, said Interior Minister Nehammer. The flight police, which is currently housed in the Meidlinger barracks, moves to Wiener Neustadt. The Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft (BIG) responsible for the project does not expect to move in until 2028 at the earliest.
DSN boss Haijawi-Pirchner is silent about how many employees the new constitution protection will have: “We will not speak publicly about specific personnel figures. This is state of the art in the intelligence service world.” Not all posts are advertised yet. But one would still be fully capable of acting.