[1] In the Federal Council, Kampl was closely allied with controversial FPÖ leader Jörg Haider, who he had helped propel to the party leadership in 1986.
He resigned from the party on 7 June 2005 as the result of a controversy (see below), and left its parliamentary fraction on 1 November 2005, sitting the rest of his term as an independent.
He attributed his decision not to resign partly to what he called the "provocative" manner in which Federal Council President Georg Pehm (a Social Democrat) had demanded he do so.
[2] Kampl's backtracking on resignation caused an even bigger controversy because, coincidentally, he was scheduled to take over the six-month rotating presidency of the Federal Council on 1 July.
Left-leaning lawmakers demanded that Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel intervene to prevent Kampl from assuming the presidency of the upper house, and threatened a walkout if he was allowed to do so.