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It took eight months. During this time, there were some waves within the coalition, setbacks over ordinances, and an increasingly cold relationship between Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) and Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens). In short: the crackle within the coalition got louder. What is happening now, after eight months of turquoise green, around Austria’s position in Moria, is the first open conflict, the first deep dividing line between the ÖVP and the Greens. However, this is not surprising. The cohesion required by the crown pandemic ultimately barely bridged the ideological gaps that were already apparent at the start of the coalition.
Neos and SPÖ took motions to the special session of the National Council on Monday. The Neos demanded that Austria participate in a European distribution campaign for the children of the burning refugee camp in Moria. The SPÖ called, somewhat less clearly, to work with Greece and other EU members to ensure decent accommodation for asylum seekers. As a “humanitarian emergency measure”, the admission of unaccompanied children and minors should also be possible in Austria. The opposition likely expected the coalition conflict to deepen. Because while the Greens want Austria to accept unaccompanied minors from the countryside on the island of Lesbos, the ÖVP continues to resolutely reject this.
Mutual requests
However, it was already clear in advance that the applications would not find a majority. Because in addition to the ÖVP, the FPÖ also strictly rejects the admission of refugees from Moria. Even with green voting behavior closed for motions together with Neos and SPÖ, they would be inferior to the Turquoise and Blue MPs with 81 to 101 votes. In any case, it was known in advance that the Greens would vote against the proposals, which the president of the Green club, Sigrid Maurer, had already announced on Sunday night on the ORF program “In the center”. “If we vote for it, we will break the coalition,” he said.
Maurer’s statement attracted special attention, according to which the ÖVP had clearly stated that in case of a green vote with the Red and Pink resolutions, it would vote with the FPÖ – unlike the SPÖ, Greens and Neos, ÖVP and FPÖ had a joint parliamentary vote Majority. European Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP), who was also present, declined to confirm Maurer’s statement on the broadcast. Background: The FPÖ had announced a motion asking the Federal Chancellor to “guarantee that migrants from Moria are not accepted.”
“Emotional breaking point”
Even if the coalition partners know how to avoid these booby traps: in a turquoise-green environment, opposing positions on admitting refugees should definitely change something in the long term. Over the weekend, the ruling parties took a joint step: the Interior Ministry will send 400 shelters for those affected to Greece through an “emergency aid package” and the foreign disaster fund will double to 50 million euros. In parliamentary circles, however, there is talk of an emotional breaking point between the coalition partners. On the green side, the main hope is that public sentiment will develop in favor of admitting minors and that the Chancellor Party may come under pressure. More recently, both the “Kronen Zeitung” and the German “Bild” appeal to Kurz to reconsider his position.
Meanwhile, the ÖVP state parties backed the Chancellor. For example, ÖVP governors Hermann Schützenhöfer (Styria), Wilfried Haslauer (Salzburg), Johanna Mikl-Leitner (Lower Austria), and Günther Platter (Tyrol) briefly agreed to support its course and advocated “help on the spot”. The leaders of the green state party were also aligned with their federal party and expressed their understanding that the coalition partner would not be voted against.
Chancellor Schallenberg: “I don’t have a hard heart”
Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) reaffirmed the refusal to accept refugees from Lesbos: “We are faced with the situation that a fire was deliberately started in the camp. This cannot automatically result in all residents being they will distribute throughout Europe. ” At the same time, however, he distanced himself from his harsh choice of words in the Moria debate: “If I’ve gotten too close to someone or even hurt someone, I don’t stand in line to apologize.” Schallenberg had declared the previous week in “ZiB 2” that “shouting for distribution” could not be the solution, prompting violent criticism from refugee organizations, churches and sectors of the opposition.
In an interview with the “Kleine Zeitung”, the chancellor emphasized: “That was not my intention, everyone who knows me knows it. I treat people with respect and at eye level.” The fate of the refugees in Lesbos does not leave him indifferent: “I am not hard-hearted. The children of Moria touch me like everyone else, especially since I have four children. The conditions there are appalling.” But he also said: “Austria helps, of course. The only question is: is there only one kind of aid and are all the others inadmissible?” Anyone who says that is not correct, said the chancellor. “We put together a big package over the weekend and collected another 25 million. Not just for Greece, but for a wide range of fire sources, including Lebanon, Libya, and Jordan. Glad we’re in Moria as well. Can provide accommodation for 2000 people. Blaming ourselves for the lack of solidarity is ineffective. We show excessive solidarity. ” In the last five years, Austria has hosted more than twice as many refugees per capita as the EU average.
