Austria's NEOS Party Creates Ombuds Program for Members

In June 2020, the New Austria and Liberal Forum (Das Neue Österreich und Liberales Forum) appointed its first two Ombudspersons: Michael Schiebel and Arlette Zakarian. Together, they serve for anyone with a conflicts related to the liberal political party. The NEOS Ombuds are neutral, confidential, and voluntary. They will also serve as mediators. NEOS is thus the second political party with an Ombuds program and joins Germany's FDP, which has had an Ombuds program since 2014. (NEOS Ombuds.)

For the past eight years, Michael Schiebel has been a Political Director for NEOS. (LinkedIn.) In addition to serving as the Ombuds, Arlette Zakarian, is a litigation attorney for the Bank of Scotland and visiting lecturer at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. She earned her law degree at Universität Wien, a second Masters at Université Panthéon Assas (Paris II), a PhD at Universität Wien, an LLM at Boston University, and  third Masters at The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. (LinkedIn.)