Sophie Karmasin

Karmasin in 2013

Sophie Karmasin (born 5 January 1967) is an opinion researcher who was Minister for Families and Youth of Austria for four years.

Karmasin was born in Vienna. Her parents were Helene and Fritz Karmasin [de], the latter was a son of Franz Karmasin; Matthias Karmasin [de] is her brother.[1] She studied business administration and later psychology at the University of Salzburg.[2] She led the family-owned Karasim Motivforschung, a market research company founded by her parents, until entering politics.[3] Karmasin is married with two children.[2]

She was appointed to the second Faymann government in December 2013.[4] She was nominated for the office by the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), but does not have a party membership.[2] She worked on increasing family benefits and improving day care capacity but was criticised for her lack of experience in politics.[3][5]

Karmasin left politics after the 2017 Austrian legislative election.[6] In 2018 she founded a consulting firm.[5] Since 2019 she presents an opinion poll segment on television channel Puls 24 [de].[7]

In 2021, Karmasin was one of ten people accused of bribery and embezzlement in the Kurz corruption probe.[8] Investigators allege that she acted as an intermediary between the ÖVP and the founders of Österreich, a newspaper that published manipulated opinion polls.[9] Sabine Beinschab [de], a former assistant of Karmasin, was arrested on 12 October.[10] Karmasin herself was arrested on 3 March due to critical risk of committing a crime and collusion.[11]

  1. ^ Brnada, Nina. "Ausgeforscht". Datum (in German). No. 4/2014.
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference kurier-2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference standard-2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Töchterle muss gehen, Karmasin wird Ministerin". Die Presse (in German). 12 December 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference kurier-2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Familienministerin Karmasin zieht sich aus Politik zurück". Der Standard (in German). 4 August 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  7. ^ "Sophie Karmasin und Silvia Schneider künftig bei Puls 24". Der Standard (in German). 3 September 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  8. ^ "ÖVP-Korruptionsaffäre: Die Beschuldigten und die Vorwürfe". ORF (in German). 7 October 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  9. ^ Klenk, Florian (6 October 2021). "Die "Österreich"-Affäre". Falter (in German). Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  10. ^ Huemer, Sarah (12 October 2021). "Austrian pollster linked to Sebastian Kurz corruption probe arrested". Politico. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  11. ^ Graber, Renate. "Ex-Familienministerin Karmasin wegen Verdachts auf Absprachen und Geldwäsche festgenommen". DER STANDARD (in Austrian German). Retrieved 4 March 2022.