She assessed the government role of her party positively. “It’s great to be able to design,” said the club chairwoman.
“We have a historical task, that is to overcome the climate crisis,” said Maurer: “For them there is also a historical window of time that is closing. Accordingly, we now have to do everything that is necessary.” She comments unperturbed that the VP side up to Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz recently signaled resistance: “We do not let ourselves be disturbed, neither by calls from the countries nor by various Chamber of Commerce officials, who are more in the old way of thinking, braking and concreting are arrested. “
Much further went in terms of climate protection
In the first one and a half years of the coalition, more went ahead in terms of climate protection than in the previous ten years together. Maurer recalled the railway expansion package, the law for renewable energy and the first tax measures. In autumn one will decide on the cosocial tax reform or the 1-2-3 ticket. “Leonore Gewessler delivers in this area and is not put off by any comments from the side,” said Maurer, praising the green environment and infrastructure minister.
Regarding the question of whether these issues could become the predetermined breaking point for the turquoise-green coalition, Maurer recalled the joint government program: “These things have been agreed”. She didn’t want to know anything about the wear and tear caused by the TP: “Politics is not about sensitivities, but about what you implement.” Whether taxes, co-investments or the evaluation of Asfinag’s road construction projects: “We are now setting the course that is no longer reversible.”
A lot of things apart from the topics have also been brought forward. In the social area, Maurer mentioned increases in the minimum pension, minimum income and unemployment benefits during the corona pandemic, generous economic aid, but also the hate-on-the-net package or the freedom of information law that the VP wants to “rethink” now.
Not only is this participation in the government pissed off, “I also believe that it will be evaluated in this way in the next elections and that a further role in shaping it – in whatever constellation – is entirely possible,” said Maurer, who promised optimism and also recalled relatively stable twelve percent in the polls for the Greens. In any case, one should evaluate the work of the government when it is finished: “And I am confident that we can convince the people that what we are doing makes a lot of sense.”
VP stirrup holder?
The criticism that the Greens – for example when appointing the ORF top or when the Ibiza-U-Committee was not renewed – had mutated into the VP’s stirrup holder, does not allow the club chairwoman to apply. “” We are in a coalition and there are a few basic rules, for example not to vote against each other. The appointments in ORF are the responsibility of the Board of Trustees. It is regrettable that they are strongly motivated by party politics, that there are no international applications and that all relevant candidates for the General Director are to be assigned to parties – albeit the result of laws passed by the Social Democrats, the Freedom Party and the People’s Party. “
Human rights must be observed in the event of deportations
When it comes to the question of the deportation of rejected asylum seekers to Afghanistan – recently a hot topic of controversy between the Greens and the VP, who insisted on it – Maurer sees no need for discussion within the coalition: “This is not a question that is politically overdone, but there are human rights laws and they must be adhered to . “
