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In recent days, criticism of federal policy rained down on the muscular city politician like a violent summer storm. The otherwise quiet Education Minister Heinz Faßmann, the equally socially committed Green Health Minister Rudi Anschober, the Deputy Chancellor for the Greens Werner Kogler, who specializes in state politics, members of the ÖVP government up to the Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz anyway: They all took the slow processing of the Crown Testing and monitoring of the city of Vienna and responsible red health advisor Peter Hacker to the grain. The widespread and massive anger of the residents of the federal capital has also found an outlet in the media in September since classes began.
The reprimand, not just from the turquoise green federal side, of the slow management of the crown crisis in the city of Vienna and the irrefutable fact that Vienna has the most new infections every day in the comparison of federal states and, therefore, the number of cases increases nationwide, they have not been left without traces. Hacker, who as the city council is responsible for it and therefore renounces the bogeyman, came to the following conclusion on Friday of the Vienna Crown dilemma that health officials and staff could no longer deal with the cases. of corona quickly enough. As Hacker announced at a press conference, the city of Vienna is now switching to corona gurgling tests to speed up the fight against the spread.
Hustle and bustle a week before the election
It is the last stop in a race to control the coronavirus. Hectic activities are not an accident. Vienna is only one week before the municipal council elections. For the SPÖ with Mayor Michael Ludwig, there is the greatest political risk of having to accept compromises of a certain electoral success on October 11. And that happens when voters get the feeling that the city of nearly two million is not being managed properly. After all, the head of the SPÖ, Ludwig, announces as the headline that the federal capital is still “in the best hands” with him and the Social Democrats. Criticisms of the ÖVP in particular, but recently also increasingly from the Federal Greens, have always been dismissed as an unjust attack on Vienna. In such a situation, deficiencies in the area of health care that is important to people come at the wrong time.
Until the start of school in early September, hackers in particular gave the impression that, as a City Councilor for Health, he had everything under control when it came to Corona. The tests for travelers returning from Croatia were organized in mid-August at the Prater stadium at a remarkable speed of express trains. The increase in corona case numbers in early September was initially justified and downplayed with the note that the results had only been entered into the database afterwards. At the same time, the nimble and hazy City Health Councilor hardly missed an opportunity to mercilessly flag the negligence of the turquoise green federal government.
Summer omissions
Then came the U-turn when it was no longer possible to ignore the fact that Vienna is the clear leader in new corona infections only when calculated in absolute numbers. At the same time, however, it became clear during the first week of school that preparations in the summer for the increase in corona cases in the fall were obviously not enough. Meanwhile, as on Friday by Mayor Ludwig in an interview with the “Wiener Zeitung”, the reason for this failure and the omissions have been put forward as an explanation that such a sharp increase could not have been foreseen. Despite the easing of the crown restrictions enacted by the federal government in the summer, not only federal politicians but also medical experts warned of a second crown wave in the fall without exception.
Above all, the high level of dissatisfaction among parents, students, teachers and principals about the chaos caused by alleged cases of corona in schools finally put the SPÖ in Vienna on its feet. Internally, there was resentment within the city council that the Vienna Directorate of Education viewed itself primarily as a stopover for referring crown-affected schools to the health department, which, according to descriptions of the school sector, had been overloaded for a lot of time with the organization. Since then, the ÖVP has turned the Health Councilor into a bogeyman and enthusiastically notes that Vienna has always indignantly rejected the support of the armed forces in the search for suspected corona cases, while even the state of Carinthia, dominated by SPÖ, as well as other federal states, asked soldiers to help with the crown. -The fights have recurred.
Chosen as a whipped boy
The fact that Mayor Ludwig recognized the danger to the SPÖ ahead of the municipal council election became clear at the latest when the city chief himself drew attention with the announcement that Vienna would employ 1,000 more people for aid. of Corona and would pay 1,800 euros a month for it. Councilman Hacker then had to act as a buffer stop for the federal government, which quickly invited governors to a crisis meeting with Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and other members of the government at the Federal Chancellery last Friday. Ludwig didn’t want to serve as a scapegoat there, Hacker had to go as a replacement. The SPÖ city council, which is technically and argumentatively superior to many members of the government, saw the meeting primarily as the election campaign against Vienna and the SPÖ.
At the same time, however, activities to contain the Crown problem in Vienna have intensified in recent days. The gurgling tests for students should stop the anger there, a new test street was opened on the Danube island. The widespread switch to gurgl testing should help reduce the number of suspected cases that need to be followed.
