At the official opening of the “European Forum Alpbach”, Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen called for refugees from Afghanistan to be accepted. He believed there was a legal, moral and political obligation for the EU and its member states to provide protection for those who are forced to leave their country. At the top should be women and girls who have worked for the EU or their countries, “are our friends”.
Van der Bellen admitted in a discussion after his speech that Austria – as argued by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) – had actually taken in a large number of refugees from Afghanistan in recent years. But his point is: “That is irrelevant.” The inclusion of 100, 500 or 1,000 families would of course be technically possible. In view of the alleged integration problems that Kurz had brought up, the President also emphasized that the vast majority of Afghans in the country were behaving well. However, he would not be so sure that Austria would actually not accept any refugees.
Van der Bellen found support from his Greek counterpart Katerina Sakellaropoulou. The desperate voices from Afghanistan should be heard by the EU. Women’s values must be defended. In his introduction, the new head of the forum, Andreas Treichl, wished that Europe would one day have to be strong enough not to be constantly (militarily) dependent on the USA in crises like the one in Afghanistan.
VdB wants more vaccine for poor countries
Another big topic at the opening was the corona crisis. Van der Bellen suggested indirectly that the rich countries should make vaccine doses available to the financially weaker ones. In countries with the lowest incomes, just 1.5 percent of the population is immunized, while in the rich countries more and more people are being searched for who are willing to be vaccinated at all. Let everyone form their opinion in the face of this. In any case, nobody will be safe if not everyone is safe, he alluded to the dimension of pandemics.
At the Tuesday afternoon event, the urgency to counteract climate change was undisputed. Sakellaropoulou referred, among other things, to the massive fires that struck her home country this summer. For Van der Bellen there is a certain hope that the EU, the US government, the UN and China have now become aware that this is one of the central challenges: “Maybe it is not too late.”
The Alpbach Forum had already started unofficially on Sunday with the “Tirol Tag”, now the official opening took place, the main proponents of which were the two heads of state, who also met for political talks on the sidelines of the event. The heads of the Tyrolean provincial government had also traveled to Alpbach. In the coming days, various technical discussions, the technology, health, economic and political discussions will traditionally follow.
The number of participants has increased significantly compared to the previous year, but is significantly below that of previous years due to Corona. Even at the opening, only every second seat was allowed to be occupied. The events are now more easily accessible online. The whole thing is accompanied by a comprehensive prevention concept including mask and test obligation, whereby the test logistics in the Tyrolean mountains are interestingly provided by the municipality of Vienna.
