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ORF host Armin Wolf is known for his aggressive interviews. “May I finish?” Asks Chancellor Kurz. “Please don’t do it,” Wolf replies.
A heated debate was to be expected when Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz visits Armin Wolf at ZIB 2. Discussion topic number 1 was included in advance – also on social media – a certain statement by the Federal Chancellor and the Minister inland.
“We had a very, very low number of infections in the summer after the shutdown and then we brought the infections back into the country through returning travelers and especially through people who had spent the summer in their home countries.”
In fact, in the week the virus was said to cross the Austrian border by car, according to AGES, twelve percent of new infections were related to the Western Balkans. Health Councilor Peter Hacker’s press spokesman also noted that 7.53 percent of new infections in Vienna between mid-July and late September were return travelers, a third of them from the former Yugoslavia.
Hence, the Federal Chancellor is harshly accused of pursuing a scapegoat policy and deliberately dividing himself at times when cohesion is more necessary than ever. Who of the returned infected travelers has a migratory history or has returned from their homeland is also nowhere recorded.
Please don’t finish
This topic should also be the focus of that section of ZIB 2, which now dominates social media and can be seen everywhere. “Why does it seem that immigrants are to blame for the virus in Austria?” Armin Wolf asks the Chancellor.
Kurz replied that it was not about nationalities or origins at all, but about returnees from trips, then he spoke about Austrians who went to Bratislava to celebrate. Wolf interrupts as he has before him the previous quote from the Chancellor, who speaks of “people in their countries of origin.”
Armin Wolf: “Mr. Chancellor, I don’t like to interrupt you, but that’s not true.”
Sebastian Kurz: “Can I finish talking?”
Armin Wolf: “Please no, because what you just said is wrong.”
Kurz responded with figures from AGES, which had shown that a third of the cases in the summer were due to returning travelers, three-quarters of them to the Western Balkans and Croatia.
Hundred thousand clicks overnight
A section is posted on Twitter and receives more than 100,000 visits overnight, with more than 1,000 new likes added in the hour of 12:00 to 13:00 on Thursday alone. The clip is also shared and highly discussed by international opinion leaders. Some find Armin Wolf’s behavior highly unprofessional and dubious, while others seem happy that the Chancellor is being detained so clearly.
There was violent outrage on Facebook groups like “Friends who like Sebastian Kurz.” “This Mr. Wolf is disgusting”, “Hats off to Sebastian Kurz, I would not have stayed calm during the conversation”, “Malicious expression, constant interruptions, a no go” are some of the reactions.
