“We now have almost exactly two years of pandemic behind us in Austria. Pandemic management has been in my hands for almost a year,” said Mückstein in his extremely short resignation press conference. He personally looks back on a year with great challenges and joys. He tackled the pandemic management with full force.
The personal burden of the job should not be underestimated. He was always aware of what he was getting himself into. You can only do the job if you do 100 percent every day. In the last few weeks he has noticed that he can no longer perform 100 percent and has therefore not met his own requirements. The threats were distressing for him and his family. Mückstein referred to the threats from opponents of vaccination, for example. If you can only leave the house under police protection, you can’t stand it for long, Mückstein continues.
Health Minister Mückstein resigns
Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) has resigned. According to Mückstein, he could no longer do the job 100 percent, and he would no longer be able to meet his own requirements. One reason for this is the threats against him and his family. If you can only leave the house under police protection, you can’t stand it for long.
“In the engine room of a democracy”
Mückstein spoke of great challenges and experiences, the pandemic management had cost a lot of strength every day. “Not everyone was satisfied with my decisions, some would have preferred more or less.” But it was a privilege for him to be able to work in the “engine room of a democracy”.
Mückstein did not criticize the coalition partner ÖVP, nor did he mention the CoV opening steps recently criticized by experts as too quick. In fact, in his seven-minute statement to journalists in the Ministry of Health, Mückstein emphasized that although there were tough negotiations, in the end there was always a balance of interests. Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP), “with whom I connect the pragmatic and fact-based approach,” he explicitly emphasized. He is handing over a well-established house and will continue in office until his successor is sworn in, said the outgoing minister. No questions were allowed afterwards
Third change in department in times of pandemic
Mückstein’s departure is the second in the health department in the black-green coalition. Mückstein’s successor will thus become the third health minister in the CoV pandemic. Mückstein himself succeeded Rudolf Anschober. At the time, Anschober said about his retirement: “I’m overworked and exhausted.” He was in office for a year, three months and six days. With Mückstein it wasn’t even a whole year.
Mückstein was born on July 5, 1974. The general practitioner was one of the heads of the primary care center in the sixth district of Vienna. In the Vienna Medical Association he acted as a consultant for group practices and new organizational forms. In the turquoise-green government negotiations, he negotiated the chapter on health and social affairs.
Leave little handwriting
It’s no secret that Mückstein often had to take responsibility for opening steps that seemed too early to him. This was probably also related to the fact that he was limited by his coalition partners, the economy, his own party and state governors. The lifting of almost all CoV measures due on Saturday was not his idea either. Experts, to whom the doctor responded several times, were skeptical about the timing until the very end.
Mückstein hasn’t hit too big a stake in his short time in office. Due to the pandemic, other topics such as care did not go much further. Mückstein was always concerned that the socially disadvantaged should not be neglected by the pandemic. Various aid packages also bore his signature.
Allegedly friendship service Rauchs and Kogler
After a meeting between the crisis cabinet and the state governors, Nehammer said at noon that there would be a “quick handover” in the event of a resignation. Green leader Werner Kogler, who thanked Mückstein extensively like other Green politicians, emphasized that on Thursday he would give the Green Parliamentary Club and the party executive the Green Vorarlberg State Councilor for the Environment and Transport Rauch as the new health and social minister suggest.
The final decision will then be made by the Extended Federal Executive Committee on Friday. The swearing-in by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen is expected to take place early next week, as the President’s Office announced at the request of the APA.
Rauch was already mentioned in the media as the successor to Mückstein in the morning. According to the “Kronen Zeitung”, the Vorarlberger is said not to have been particularly enthusiastic about the call from Vienna, but after a period of reflection he said that he was a friend to Kogler – more on that in vorarlberg.ORF.at.
Thanks to Mückstein
Kogler attested to Mückstein that he “made this personal decision carefully and with a great sense of responsibility, and I have the greatest respect for that”. Green club chairwoman Sigrid Maurer also agreed with the praise.
On behalf of the ÖVP, Nehammer thanked the outgoing minister via Twitter for the good, cooperative and intensive cooperation. “All the best for your future journey,” said the Federal Chancellor. As Minister of Health, Mückstein has taken on an important and at the same time difficult role for the country, especially in times of the pandemic.
opposition very critical
Criticism has already come from the opposition. “The question arises as to how expedient it is for Austria if the next member of the government throws in the towel in the middle of two crises,” said SPÖ leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner at a press conference. “It’s the opposite of stability.”
Similarly, NEOS boss Beate Meinl-Reisinger: “I find it very unfortunate that we will soon have the third health minister in a pandemic,” Meinl-Reisinger also said at a press conference. In addition, Mückstein’s presumed successor is not even a specialist. FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl said it was clear that this was not a free decision by Mückstein, but an action agreed with the entire federal government.