This was emphasized by Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) in an interview with the Italian daily “La Stampa” (Tuesday edition). At the same time, Kurz reiterated the need to close Europe’s external borders. The Chancellor confirmed that Austria would not accept any further Afghan refugees. “Countries ruled by social democrats like Sweden and Denmark also pursue restrictive immigration policies. The refugee flows no longer exist as they did six years ago. We have to break the business model of human traffickers, stop illegal migrants at the external borders and bring them to their countries of origin or to safe third countries “said Kurz. “This year alone, around 8,000 refugees came to our country via the still open Balkan route, a fifth of them from Kabul. Our position is realistic: the integration of Afghans is very difficult and requires an expenditure of energy that we cannot afford,” declared the Chancellor.
“If people say that we do not show solidarity, then that is not true. We are concentrating on supporting Afghanistan’s neighboring countries and are making 20 million euros available for this purpose: protection and aid for the Afghans in the region,” said the Chancellor .
As far as relations with Italy are concerned, the country is “an important neighbor for Austria and we work well together”. “South Tyrol is a success story in solving the problems of minorities in Europe. I am convinced that we will continue to work well with the government in Rome on all South Tyrolean matters,” said Kurz.
In terms of debt, Kurz said: “Austria is very critical of plans that provide for massive debt after the pandemic. During the corona pandemic, it was right and important to give the economy strong support. But now we have to bring public finances back to one Establish a solid base, concentrate on Europe’s competitiveness in order not to lag behind other regions of the world, especially Asia, “explained Kurz. Austria will continue to coordinate with the thrifty four on matters of financial policy, as well as with Denmark, Slovenia and the Visegrad countries on matters of migration.
