Vienna elections: That was the first “round of elephants” in ORF – Vienna elections

It was the premiere of “Elefanten” in the current election campaign in Vienna: on Wednesday night, the main candidates of the six parties represented in the state parliament met for the first time. The content of the debate was largely dominated by the issues of coronavirus and integration. The ÖVP’s top candidate, Finance Minister Gernot Blümel, made people sit down and take notice when he explicitly campaigned for the FPÖ’s previous votes.

The first half of the 90-minute edition of the Ö1 “Klartext” series, moderated by Edgar Weinzettl, head of national radio, was reserved for the various aspects of the corona pandemic, with the federal level playing at least one role as well. important in the dispute. like local politics. This was clear from the first question, when the recently put into operation Corona traffic light, which is yellow in Vienna, was discussed.

SPÖ chief and mayor Michael Ludwig again demanded more transparency from the federal government regarding the color scheme for individual regions. And he was generally disappointed that instead of cooperation and mutual support, the “Vienna attack” by the federal government had started immediately after the initial spread of the virus had eased somewhat.

While NEOS chief Christoph Wiederkehr criticized the traffic light system as a “political bazaar” and banned any “mishaps” between the federal government and Vienna in times of crisis, FPÖ listener Dominik Nepp generally described the regulation as “absurdly and strictly to be rejected.” The coach agreed with the former head of the FPÖ Heinz-Christian Strache, who is now trying to return to politics with his new HC after the Ibiza scandal, to the extent that both spoke of the “fear and scaremongering” of the Government. In general, the two ex-friends from the party never met that night.

He was also heavily involved in the discussion of Corona’s aid packages. Here Blümel entered the firing line very quickly, who previously spoke about financial injections worth millions to billions, from which Vienna also benefits greatly. Hebein criticized the fact that the money did not arrive properly: “This is where the finance minister is called,” he addressed the top Turquoise candidate. She herself once again made the green suggestion of a 35-hour week for all Stadt-Wien employees, which Blümel recognized as “incomprehensible”: “How do you get the idea of ​​achieving more prosperity when we work less?” Ludwig did not seem entirely against the “reduction of working hours in this dimension”, but that had to be negotiated on the basis of social alliances and clarified in terms of financing.

Nepp spoke to Blümel of the “phantom billions”: “Now you will be saved thanks to the Vienna elections”, then the great wave of bankruptcies will come. Strache also found that the federal government had left many companies in the lurch and was therefore in line with Wiederkehr, who was upset about the overly bureaucratic process – the tax advisers had done good business here. Ludwig, however, emphasized the city’s own aid packages that had been decided in recent months.

The second main topic of the “Elefantenrunde” debate in the Funkhaus’s large broadcast hall was the topic of integration. Blümel saw this as the best proof that, with reference to the new integration report for Austria in Vienna, a “decent center-right policy” was needed. “The chickens laugh,” replied FPÖ President Nepp: “You are not the solution, you are the problem,” he saw the failures of the ÖVP in the course of the refugee movement in 2015.

The main Turquoise candidate used this as an opportunity to address voters who had recently been disappointed several times by the Freedom Party: “For these voters there is only one option if they want this problem to be approached with common sense: a turquoise policy. “. We are the only center-right party capable of governing. If we want this situation to improve in Vienna, I can ask for your vote. “Since the SPÖ, the Greens and NEOS would not deal with the problem, he referred to the recently jointly expressed wish of the three parties to host 100 refugee children of the meanwhile burned down, the Greek Moria refugee camp in Vienna.

After Strache called himself the “spokesman for the German-speaking children in Vienna, the new minority”, referring to the sometimes high proportion of immigrants in Viennese compulsory schools, the politician Grün Hebein finally found “friendship of three boys “” a little deep “:” It is a question of humanity that we take in 100 children from Moria “. And yes, for better integration, more staff is needed in schools. In doing so, the deputy mayor responded to an observation by the head of NEOS that “there are still more deputy district directors than school psychologists” in the federal capital.

The mayor himself admitted “great challenges” regarding integration, but at the same time made it clear that he certainly would not build a wall around Vienna. And he is against using the issue politically “to divide the people.” There are hundreds of thousands of people with immigration backgrounds who would make a valuable contribution to the most livable city in the world. “I’m not going to let everyone group here.”

Due to advanced times, only topics such as affordable housing, transportation, and climate protection were touched upon. In the end, moderator Weinzettl judged Ludwig with the coalition question. In addition to the FPÖ and Team HC, which the city chief has already ruled out as a government partner, the ÖVP is also focusing heavily on the issue of migration. Was that a reason for exclusion from the negotiations? The mayor did not give a clear answer, only this: he personally regrets that “the ÖVP, which has Christian social roots and has had a very liberal wing for a long time, now competes with the HC and FPÖ team.” .