Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) made people sit up and take notice on Sunday evening with the statement that Austria was the “European vaccination champion”. He received severe criticism for this from former Federal President Heinz Fischer, the former Supreme Court President and ex-NEOS MP Irmgard Griss and from the former Governor of Salzburg Franz Schausberger (ÖVP).
With his statement from the “European Vaccination Champion” in the “ZiB2”, Mückstein referred to the fact that the number of vaccinations in Austria has increased significantly again in the last few days.
In the discussion “In the center”, Fischer said that he would “be careful” with such a statement. Griss stated: “We are not European champions” and criticized the government for having failed to do everything possible to raise the vaccination quota. And Schausberger also wanted to “correct” Mückstein’s statement and pointed out that, in contrast to Austria, Spain and Portugal have vaccination rates well over 80 percent.
Griss and Schausbeger also blamed Mückstein personally for the omissions. The health minister should have taken on his responsibility, and if he couldn’t, then he should have resigned, said the former chief judge. The former governor also said that Mückstein should have “taken action”, as health minister he had the competence to do so. Fischer said more generally that the federal government had partially failed and its decision-making was “suboptimal”.
The former Federal President, like his successor Alexander Van der Bellen, called on people to prevent a split in society and had a specific proposal for this. The government could invite the opposition parties to a weekly meeting and involve them in their decisions. Another option would be to use a subcommittee of the Health Committee to involve. In any case, Fischer pleaded for “reaching out to anti-vaccination opponents” who have fears.