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Austria tightened measures to contain the corona virus. Chancellor Kurz has taken Germany as a model, but goes a bit further with curfews.
By Clemens Verenkotte, ARD Studio Vienna
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz spoke of a “tough package”. If action is not taken now, hospitals and intensive care beds will be overloaded. Austria does not want to allow that. “From Tuesday, November 3, at midnight until the end of November, there will be a second shutdown in Austria,” Kurz told a government press conference in Vienna.
All cultural, sporting and leisure events are no longer possible, and hotels and restaurants should close. Commercial and service companies remained open, as did kindergartens and schools up to the upper level. In order to mitigate the economic consequences, the government will reimburse the affected companies for 80 percent of their sales they had in the same month of 2019. In addition, there will be a restriction on night out between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., he said Kurz.
“Unfortunately this is necessary for God”
But of course there are exceptions. It is still possible to go to work, help others, or stretch your legs. Rather, the exit restrictions meant a visit to that period, Kurz said. “That means you can no longer leave your home to meet and visit other people. Unfortunately, this is necessary because we saw at night that there are often meetings here and private parties come where a lot of infections resulted.”
Criticisms of the opposition and of our own ranks
Detailed drafts of the regulation have circulated in the Austrian media since yesterday, in which, among other things, the exit restriction has already been mentioned. In the run-up to the government press conference, Austrian opposition parties were in some cases massive criticism of new measures to curb the rapid rise in the number of infections. Liberal NEOS chairwoman Beate Meinl-Reisinger said in the morning: “For us, the measures that really correspond to martial law, like curfews, full curfews, from 8 pm to 6 am, are an isolation preventive of all persons in Austria., not provided “.
The state leaders of the SPÖ accused Kurz of not having involved them. The draft regulation was only sent to them on Friday night. Together with the conservative state heads of government of the ÖVP, they were invited for an hour at the Federal Chancellery to speak with the highest government. The leader of the FPÖ parliamentary group, Herbert Kickl, accused the government of trying to scare people: “That is the hard calculation with which this federal government works, and I cannot avoid the accusation that it is walking the path of totalitarianism.”
Compatible with the Constitution?
In both the summer and this week, the Austrian Constitutional Court rejected several key elements of the turquoise green federal government ordinances as unconstitutional. Sufficient justification for the measures and balancing of other fundamental rights was lacking.
