After ÖVP secretary general Laura Sachslehner openly threatened the green coalition partner in the dispute over the climate bonus for asylum seekers, club boss August Wöginger has now left. He whistled back to Sachslehner, emphasizing: “The ÖVP has always been loyal to the pact and will be so in this case.” In doing so, he met the demands of Greens club boss Sigrid Maurer, who demanded a clear commitment to the coalition by Sachslehner’s statements as “dubious” and from the ÖVP.
The secretary-general of the ÖVP responded in a press conference on Thursday to the original call from the campaigning Tyrolean People’s Party to change the law on the climate bonus as soon as possible so that asylum seekers no longer receive the benefit. Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler and Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (both Green) immediately rejected this request.
Maurer: “Greens are ready”
Sachslehner objected that it was “incomprehensible” to her, so the Greens “stubbornly switched on”. This statement in turn called on Green club boss Maurer, who explained via Twitter that the collaboration with Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) and his government team was constructive and marked by a sense of responsibility in difficult times: “We Greens are ready. to continue this collaboration.” However, after Sachslehner’s statement, she asked if the ÖVP questioned the coalition. “Until now, the questionable statements made by Ms Sachslehner, who is neither on the government team nor on the National Council, have had any impact on government work. I assume it will stay that way – the coalition partner has to show its colors here,” Maurer said.
Her ÖVP counterpart Wöginger reacted immediately and recalled Sachslehner. “The ÖVP has always been loyal to the pact and will be so in this case,” he claimed in a brief written statement to the APA. “The current arrangement was agreed last summer and will remain so.” There were no further explanations for the discrepancy in the statements in the ÖVP club.
Opposition sees dispute escalating
Federal director of SPÖ, Christian Deutsch, saw the dispute escalate. “If the secretary-general of the ÖVP threatens the Green coalition partner with new elections on the open stage, the government is on fire,” he said in a broadcast. “It is no different from Sachslehner’s statements that the Greens have ‘crossed a red line’, that they are ‘stubborn’ and that their behavior is ‘unacceptable’.”
For the FPÖ renewed party leader Herbert Kickl the proposal to the ÖVP to use the “coalition-free space” enshrined in the government program: “If the ÖVP is really serious, they can decide with us freedom fighters on the necessary legislative changes at any moment,” he said in a broadcast.
Source: Krone
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