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Some tourists in Austria were surprised by the relatively lax crown requirements in the summer. Now the number of cases is increasing and the criticism of Chancellor Kurz comes from the ski tourism industry.
By Nikolaus Neumaier, ARD Studio Vienna
Lukas Riml, the manager of the “Alpina” hotel in Sölden, is worried about the future. The Alpine Skiing World Cup starts in Ötzal, the sky is a brilliant blue, but Riml’s mood is cloudy: as a hotelier, he doesn’t know what to do next, he says.
Riml expects the foreign ministry’s travel advisories for his region to be lifted in December, because he lives mainly off guests from Germany. The difficult situation is not yet a reason to fundamentally question the crisis management of the federal government itself, he says.
However, he suggests that the relaxation of crown measurements came too early for him: “Maybe we were a little too relaxed in the summer, that’s just my assessment. Maybe we could have taken a little stricter measurements at an early stage . to keep the numbers a little lower in the fall. “
Vacationers were in awe of the ease
His criticisms are likely to be directed primarily at Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. At the start of the Crown crisis in Europe, he proceeded faster and more strictly than other heads of government. When he announced in mid-March that Austria would have to be “closed for emergency operation”, schools and nurseries in Germany had not yet officially closed, and local elections were still being held in Bavaria.
Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder confirmed that the Austrians were two weeks ahead. When Kurz relaxed the measurements, Söder remained skeptical. Bavarian vacationers visiting Austria were surprised by the ease in the neighboring country, also when it came to masks. Meanwhile, other tones can be heard. The withdrawal of the strict rules came too quickly and Austria had lost an advantage, my dealer in the weekly markets in Vienna.
“Serious error of judgment” in Ischgl
The clearest criticism came from the independent expert commission, which was supposed to investigate crisis management after the Corona outbreak at the Ischgl ski resort, and deliberately avoided political assessments or blame. It was even more astonishing that the chairman of the commission, former judge Ronald Rohrer, assigned Chancellor Kurz the responsibility for the chaos when the vacationers left.
The report, which was presented on October 12 in Innsbruck, speaks of a “serious error of judgment”. The chancellor’s quarantine order was made “surprisingly and without thinking.” Kurz acted “without formal responsibility” and did not coordinate sufficiently with state authorities. The conclusion of the experts: Only then did panic reactions occur.
The opposition in the Austrian National Council used the expert assessment as a drag. The liberal Neos dubbed him a “chancellor of panic” who was “good at blocking and blocking.” The SPÖ held Kurz responsible for “panic and chaos” and would like a commission of inquiry. The right-wing populist FPÖ called him the “Superspreader Austria”.
After the violent criticism, Kurz spoke in public a remarkable number of times. On Monday he swore to the Austrian population the harsh autumn and winter months. Before that, he had already addressed Austrians directly at an online address. His message: the situation is dire.
“If we fail to curb growth, we will have about 6,000 new infections a day in December,” he said in the speech. The next day, he announced at a press conference with his coalition partner that a “red-white-red show of force” would be necessary, and he laid out stricter rules at the national level.
“We would have been prepared”
Hoteliers, elevator operators and representatives of the tourism industry now hope that the winter season can somehow be secured. Oliver Schwarz, managing director of the association “Ötztal Tourismus”, questions the new measures.
He also criticizes the procedure for introducing mandatory registration as being too fast and hasty. “In my opinion, I could plan better. I could have worked in this direction before,” he says. “We would have been prepared. We just had to know what data is needed.” His demand of politicians – in the federal states and the federal government: better involve those who have to implement it.
