Walter Rosenkranz: – “Firing the government is the easiest”

Walter Rosenkranz seems serious, usually speaks calmly and deliberately. In substance, however, his views are what die-hard freedom fighters expect from the FPÖ candidate for the federal presidential election. In a conversation with the “OÖ-Krone” at the Linz editorial office, Rosenkranz quickly comes to one of his favorite topics: the power of the Federal President to dismiss a government. “That’s the easiest thing our constitution offers.” The head of state could do it “without any specifications, even for jokes and antics,” he says.

Replacing “weak spots” in government
Rosencrantz has specific ideas about how he wants to go about it: He would use a “questionnaire” to investigate “weaknesses” in the government team. If the chancellor refuses to exchange them, his message is: “Dear Chancellor, I can only fire you as a captain or the entire government.”

The FPÖ candidate sees no autocratic tendencies or even putsch fantasies: the constitution has allowed such an approach since 1929. “If the parliamentarians don’t want that anymore, they have to change the constitution,” explains Rosenkranz.

Praise for Orban
However, someone to whom autocratic traits are attributed receives praise from the Lower Austrian: Viktor Orban plays a “trust role” in Hungary within the EU that Rosencrantz would also like to see from Austria. Instead, our country is just “an appendage of the EU” that has “gambled away its great tradition as a mediator” against the background of the war in Ukraine.

He is not currently aiming for an “exit”, but he says Austria would like to end sanctions against Russia on its own. The country would benefit twice, says Rosenkranz: “Gas would flow back to Austria, which we could then pass on to other countries.”

The PVV also seizes the issue of sanctions as an opportunity to win over sympathizers of the ÖVP – which, as is known, does not present its own candidate – especially as there was criticism from Upper Austria: ÖVP Governor Thomas Stelzer “knows clearly there are still problems with the people”. , he speaks of his insistence on reconsidering the sanctions.

White wine but no cigarettes in the Hofburg
The German member of the national brotherhood does not say a good word about the current incumbent. Alexander Van der Bellen did “nothing unifying at all” in six years. Rosencrantz sees himself as the better bridge builder. As an ombudsman and long-term city councilor in Krems, he knows the “comprehensive problems” of the “little man”.

What would he put in his suitcase if he moved into the Hofburg? “No cigarettes, just white wine from the Wachau, shirts, suits and ties – and CDs of classical music.”