Erstellt am: 26. 7. 2012 - 17:13 Uhr

A reality check for Austrian politics

Reality Check: Carinthian politics under the spotlight; visiting a shrinking glacier.

Carinthia

In many other countries political leaders are expected to step down at the mere hint of alleged wrongdoing. In Austria, however, the tendency is to hang on until the bitter end. That’s why the resignation on Wednesday of Josef Martinz, the leader of the Carinthian ÖVP made such a splash. Of course, there was more than just a hint of shady dealings in testimony by the accountant Dietrich Birnbacher. He told the court in Klagenfurt that the plan had always been to use his fee for consulting on the sale of the Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank to the BayernLB to funnel money to the political parties ÖVP and BZÖ. So is this an indication of further upheavals in Austrian politics? Commentator Thomas Hofer gives us his view:

Melting ice from the not-so frozen north

An ice sheet twice the size of Manhattan has broken off from Greenland. Temperatures over the Greenland ice sheet have been unusually warm for much of the summer. Chris Cummins has been investigating melting ice in the Italian Alps:

Listen to the programme after the show via Podcast or at fm4.orf.at/realitycheck.