The planned division of departments is causing criticism. “That’s not possible,” says VP MEP Othmar Karas. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner defends the turquoise-blue coalition.
After the substantive specifications of the turquoise-blue coalition in Lower Austria, the division of departments is now also causing criticism. Udo Landbauer, FPÖ state party leader and future deputy state governor, takes over part of the EU agenda. In the future, he will be responsible, among other things, for the office for EU regional policy, which supports the use of regional subsidies. This is also met with resistance within the ÖVP, reports the “Standard”. “That doesn’t work at all,” said Othmar Karas, Vice President of the EU Parliament from the ÖVP Lower Austria.
In the Lower Austrian ÖVP, it is pointed out that Landbauer only takes on part of the EU agenda. “Lower Austria’s foreign relations, including the European Union, are and will remain a top priority in Lower Austria, this responsibility is clearly regulated in the rules of procedure. The Europa Forum Wachau also comes under the responsibility of our state governor,” said ÖVP club chairman Jochen Danninger.
Landbauer will also be responsible for traffic (road and public transport) and sport in the future. Mikl-Leitner will continue to be responsible for human resources and culture, and she will also take over the business and tourism agendas from Danninger, who is moving from the state government to the top of the club.
Three FPÖ state councillors
In the future, the ÖVP will only have four instead of six of the nine members. The FPÖ is entitled to one LH deputy and two provincial councillors. In addition to farmers, Christoph Luisser and Susanne Rosenkranz are new to the state government. The SPÖ has two members in the proportional state government: Sven Hergovich, designated SPÖ state party chairman, and Ulrike Königsberger-Ludwig, previously state health minister. Their responsibilities are to be determined in a meeting on Monday.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner also comes from the Lower Austrian ÖVP. He defended the new alliance on Sunday in the ORF “press hour”. Cooperation should be “measured by their deeds,” he said – which in turn is reminiscent of Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, who once wanted to measure the Taliban by their deeds.
“Legally Difficult”
Karner conceded that the new state government’s plan to repay unconstitutional corona penalties could become legally difficult. The constitutional lawyer Heinz Mayer described the project as illegal in the “Presse am Sonntag”. Penalties imposed on the basis of valid decisions cannot simply be returned, this would be a case of abuse of office.
Karner said it was about filling in the ditches created in the pandemic. Chancellor Karl Nehammer also announced this process in his speech on the future. At that time, the Freedom Party spoke of mockery instead of reconciliation, according to the interior minister. Now the FPÖ is apparently ready for it.
He has great respect for VP Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner for taking this difficult path. After all, during the election campaign she was given words “that were below the belt”. Karner argued that the Liberals would have been part of the proportional government, whether with or without a labor agreement, and he also recalled that there was also red-blue in Burgenland.
Karner did not want to answer whether the black-blue cooperation could also be a model in the federal government. “I’m not ready to speculate at the moment.” The turquoise-green coalition still has a lot planned, which will be worked through in the next year and a half.
(APA/maf)