She does not want to get into the discussion about renouncing the environment that was started by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP), “I can do relatively little with the discussion,” said Gewessler on Thursday at a press conference when asked by journalists. The climate crisis “puts our livelihood into question”.
Gewessler sees a great need for action. “Last year we experienced very intensely what it means to live on a sick planet. There is no healthy economy on a sick planet,” said the Environment Minister. The goal is to be able to “show the children a piece of this beautiful land still intact” in the future. The point is that “we can still have a good life in Austria in 2040, 2050. We have to do something about that now.” The minister referred to the environmental protection projects in the government program. “The federal government has taken on great responsibility for this.”
Gewessler: “Don’t let old thinking slow you down”
Just like Kurz, Gewessler also wants to focus on innovations in environmental protection. “I fully agree with the Chancellor, that does not mean going back to the past, that means going forward courageously.” Right now you should “not let old thinking slow you down” and not always listen to those “who automatically say no,” she added, of course.
Ever since the examination of the Asfinag new building projects became public, Gewessler has been facing violent political headwinds from the federal states. Kurz had already stood by the side of the federal states two weeks ago: “We need a good infrastructure, especially in rural areas,” argued the Chancellor. He was “very optimistic that common sense will prevail” because it is a matter of fact about long-term projects.
During his most recent visit to Vorarlberg, Kurz again openly opposed the environment minister of his coalition to the ORF in connection with the Bodensee expressway S18: “The governor and I are of one opinion. We are at the side of the population. The project it has been planned for a long time, it has been promised for a long time and it has to be carried out. ” Why the ÖVP club was last in parliament for a motion that backed Gewessler on this matter, “I don’t know,” Kurz explained in the “Vorarlberger Nachrichten” (Thursday edition). The ÖVP club did not want to comment on the matter on Thursday at the APA request.
Image: (APA / HERBERT NEUBAUER)
In short: “That won’t work”
While Gewessler sees traffic as a big problem, Kurz said “that it would be completely wrong to believe that we can save the climate in the future by only practicing renunciation”, because “the only correct approach” is to rely on technical progress, innovation and technology. “The renouncement of mobility, the renouncement of driving to the workplace and of individual traffic, that will not work,” he said in the “UN”. “I’m not at all of the opinion that our way back to the Stone Age should be. I don’t believe in the constant policy of the wagging index finger or the fantasies that one could somehow live like in the last century.”
During a visit to Salzburg on Thursday, Kurz reaffirmed to journalists that he is relying on technological progress and not on “going back to the past”. Austria is a country with high economic efficiency, a high quality of life and a strong infrastructure, here you shouldn’t fall behind. “Some people propose a climate lockdown that won’t happen with me.”
As far as climate change is concerned, innovations and a global show of strength are needed, everyone has to pull together. When it comes to traffic, it’s not about whether you drive or not, but about emissions. Here electrical energy is effective, said Kurz. “I am convinced that electromobility will become more and more important.” Hydrogen is also an issue of the future in the transport sector.
“Where there is a will, there is a way”
The best example of how innovative mankind can be is the development of a vaccine against the coronavirus in such a short time, which previously normally took ten years. “Where there is a will, there is a way. People are capable of many,” said Kurz, optimistically.
The Chancellor also pointed out that in Austria many people in rural areas are dependent on cars, and that there is no subway here as in Vienna. When asked whether he was not disregarding democracy when it came to the S18 Bodensee expressway in Vorarlberg, when there was a democratic mandate for project appraisal, Kurz replied: “Many projects have already been decided and are legally on their way. I am on the side of the population and the federal states, who expect a certain planning security. “
There are projects with legal certainty, and services with financial expense have already been provided. Kurz does not see a conflict with the Green coalition partner in this context. “A discourse in democracy is absolutely normal,” and there could be different approaches.
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Discussions for three weeks
The dispute between the Greens and ÖVP over the road construction projects has been smoldering for three weeks. Then it became known that Asfinag’s new construction projects are currently being examined as part of an evaluation until autumn, including hotly controversial ones such as the Lobau tunnel in Vienna. The countries protested loudly. Gewessler was somewhat surprised by the excitement, after all, she had already made the matter transparent in December by means of a parliamentary question. With the Greens, one suspects behind closed doors that it was probably no coincidence that the excitement topic found its way into the media around the questioning of the turquoise Chancellor in the Ibiza-U-Committee.
In any case, the debate was fueled not only by the federal states and parts of the opposition, but also by the coalition partner in the federal government: Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) told his Green government colleague on the radio that he understood “if some had the impression it arises that it is less about objective review and improvement possibilities, but more about ideology “. “Climate protection is not an ideology, climate protection is a fact,” countered Gewessler. Kurz subsequently called for “common sense”, his turquoise State Secretary in Gewessler’s house, Magnus Brunner, added a little more and accused the head of the department of “uncertainty” due to her “going it alone”. “In infrastructure projects, there are always a lot of interests at the table – regional, supra-regional, the interests of the economy. And climate protection and environmental protection are now also at the table with me,” said Gewessler, unimpressed.
The conflict continued in the Federal Council
The conflict continued in parliament, initially in the Federal Council, which otherwise received little public attention. There the topic was kept simmering last Thursday by means of an urgent request from the FPÖ to Gewessler. That would not be an excitement per se, just like the – non-binding – motion for a resolution of the Styrian SPÖ Federal Councilor Horst Schachner, which calls on Gewessler to immediately withdraw the “implementation stop for all very important projects on motorways and expressways”. Unexpectedly and largely unnoticed by the public, however, the motion found a majority because not only the SPÖ and FPÖ voted in favor, but also, contrary to the coalition line, the Vorarlberg ÖVP Federal Councilor Christine Schwarz-Fuchs. In the motion for a resolution, the S18 is of course not included in the list of affected projects. Whether it was a mistake or a rebellious act is not known – in the turquoise club one should still not have been pleased, can be heard.
Although the majority in favor of the resolution in the Bundesrat has no practical impact, symbolically the matter looks naturally unfavorable and obviously pissed off the Greens. So the Greens pushed for another motion for a resolution to be introduced in the National Council last Monday, which calls for Gewessler to examine alternatives to the Vorarlberg S18. The motion for a resolution was ultimately tabled jointly by the Greens and the ÖVP. The two Vorarlberg VP mandataries also voted, albeit grudgingly. “The motion was literally coerced from the ÖVP by the Greens in connection with the motion of no confidence against Finance Minister Gernot Blümel in the same session,” said Vorarlberg MP Karlheinz Kopf afterwards. The Green denied such a connection. On Thursday, Gewessler explicitly welcomed the “clear mandate” from Parliament to examine the expressway project in Vorarlberg. “I will stick to taking parliament seriously and of course I will.”
“Kurz makes the Greens look ridiculous”
SPÖ Federal Managing Director Christian Deutsch, on the other hand, located one coalition crash after the other in a broadcast. “Kurz makes the Greens ridiculous with his Stone Age saga, while the Greens provoke with their blockade of long-planned projects” that the population is “unsettled by these absurd power games”. The SPÖ Federal Managing Director now sees the government being challenged “to finally get going and to work again for Austria instead of against each other”.
Agriculture Minister Elisabeth Köstinger (ÖVP) said at the joint press conference with Gewessler that the debate was not a great burden for the turquoise-green coalition. It works quite well despite differences of opinion. They will work together constructively over the next few months and years.
