She called the warnings from shortly before a “climate lockdown”, which some would demand, “absurd”. “I have to honestly say, I don’t quite understand what the Chancellor is talking about. Nobody is asking for such absurd things,” said Maurer in the Ö1 “Morgenjournal” on Monday.
It is not about restrictions, but about expanding climate-friendly mobility. The statements by Kurz on the S18 expressway in Vorarlberg, according to which the road must be built, called Maurer “the personal opinion of the Chancellor on a road in Vorarlberg”. The responsible transport minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) had an order from parliament to examine alternatives here.
Wirtschaftsbund criticizes the Greens
The return coach from the ÖVP came from the Wirtschaftsbund on Monday. Secretary General Kurt Egger called on the coalition partner to finally implement climate projects instead of heating up the coalition climate. One could get the impression that the Greens “forgot their government responsibility during the summer break. Instead of tackling the abundance of innovative climate projects, one is currently content with the abstract discussion of climate target quotas, entrepreneur bashing and a legally questionable evaluation of infrastructure projects that have already been examined”, criticized Egger in a broadcast. Many wind power, biomass and hydropower projects are “on hold forever or are never realized”, also due to green citizens’ initiatives, complained the Secretary General of the Economic Association.
Opposition: “Work, don’t argue”
Criticism of this hack came from the opposition. The SPÖ called on the government to finally work for Austria instead of against each other. For Federal Managing Director Christian Deutsch, people are “the victims of this ongoing conflict”. This dispute neither creates jobs nor does it secure them, schools would not be safer as a result, and the necessary corona vaccination would not be promoted, German said in a broadcast. The Neos also urged the government to work and not argue. She was elected for this, said the deputy club chairman Niki Scherak. “We have to finally make meters on climate protection – we have to put an end to mutual alignment via the media,” said Scherak in a broadcast.
The complete “ZIB” interview with Maurer:
Kogler: “Brief advice from the wrong people”
At the weekend Kogler had attested the Chancellor “old thinking”. “The last time I can remember such tones from the Chancellery, it was about Hainburg. At that time I also had the impression that Chancellor Sinowatz (ex-SPÖ Chancellor Fred, note) was talking to the wrong people, sometimes even of concrete heads, “says Kogler:” In any case, the diction was exactly the same. ” He has the impression that Kurz is “like it used to be” and that in the Chancellery “perhaps too much is surrounded by oil lobbyists and concretes,” says Kogler: “Otherwise it cannot be explained.” The Vice Chancellor is convinced that climate protection is a “majority concern”.
FPÖ criticizes Van der Bellen
Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen also took a clear position at the opening of the Salzburg Festival: “I think it is wrong to postpone measures against the climate crisis and to pretend that it will pass by itself.” And: “If we are honest with ourselves, we know that it cannot go on like this. And we know that we have to act.”
“Shocked” about this statement appeared on Monday FPÖ chairman Herbert Kickl. In a broadcast he described the Federal President as “propagandists of a tough climate dictatorship”. For Kickl, the impression is strengthened that “the corona policy is only a preliminary stage and should be tested to see what citizens put up with an authoritarian technocratic regime that bases its policy solely on some, mostly incomprehensible, figures there are some incidences or some carbon dioxide calculations “.
The starting point of the coalition skirmish was Gewessler’s order to evaluate Asfinag’s new building projects by autumn, which led to an uprising in the federal states. In addition to the Vienna Lobau tunnel, the Bodensee expressway S18 in Vorarlberg is also affected. In this case, Kurz took the side of the building advocate, Landeschef Markus Wallner (ÖVP), and said during his recent visit to Vorarlberg that giving up mobility and individual transport would not work. He is not of the opinion “that our way back to the Stone Age should be”. And with regard to the S18, Kurz stated that the project had “been promised for a long time and it must be carried out”.
