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“This year will be better,” that’s what Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen promised in his New Year’s speech at ORF on Friday night. In addition to happiness and health, the head of state also wished “the courage to dream.” Because, according to the federal president: “Now is the time when we must dream of how we can improve our world.” Specifically, it addressed, for example, nature conservation, but also union, as well as flight and poverty.
“At some point in the next few months, the feeling that the pandemic is over or at least under control will slowly emerge,” Van der Bellen tried to show confidence. However, according to the speech, he also asked not to forget the year 2020 as soon as possible and to return to the agenda. Rather, “this brief period of silence before the year actually begins” should be used for reflection and reflection. “Because when we have overcome the pandemic, and we overcome it, do we really want to go back exactly to the world we had before?”
Rejection of a problem habit
The main question for Van der Bellen is: “What future do we want to see?” Now is the time “in which we have to look further”, “without hesitation, to think completely new, without fear of thinking too big,” said the federal president. “We are capable of unheard of achievements when it comes down to it. The past year has shown it.”
Some of the habits of the past are quite troublesome and you have to decide if you really want to return to them or if you want to build a new and better world than the old one. “How about, for example, if we get into the habit of seeing a flourishing economy and a flourishing nature not as opposites, but as goals that are mutually dependent?” Suggested Van der Bellen. There are many new, sustainable and climate-oriented technologies that could become the engine of a new boom.
“The stark contrast between rich and poor
“What if we softened the glaring contrast between well protected and on the run or between rich and poor?” Van der Bellen also said. The federal president also emphasized that society will be strengthened through mutual respect. “How about we break the trend toward ruthlessness and aggression, the trend to retreat into our own virtual bubble and fight bitterly against other opinions?” Van der Bellen also appealed to the population to appreciate “our beautiful Austria and liberal democracy”, but also the European Union more. (off / red.)
