SPÖ leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner emphatically called for new elections in the special session of the National Council on Wednesday. The federal government has neither a plan nor a strategy to deal with the “numerous crises”, she lamented. The consequence of the numerous scandals surrounding the People’s Party is “that the ÖVP is more concerned with saving its own skin than leading the country in these difficult times,” criticized Rendi-Wagner. As expected, the SPÖ’s application for new elections did not find a majority.
The SPÖ leader spoke of “unprecedented political shamelessness” and “indecency” of the ÖVP. She called on the governing parties to clear the way: “Stop holding on to your government functions.” Rendi-Wagner was unimpressed by Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s speech in which he made allegations of corruption against the ÖVP – his appearance on the Government Bank of numerous interventions from the ranks of the opposition.
“Ten Commandments I Don’t Care”
Earlier SPÖ deputy club boss Jörg Leichtfried had justified his group’s urgent request in the debate. He referred to morality and decency and recalled that the ÖVP calls itself Christian-Social. If she bases herself purely on criminal law, she would also “don’t care about seven and a half of the ten commandments from the Bible”. “Mr. Schmid at least adhered to the fourth, you should honor your mother,” he said, referring to statements by former Finance Minister Thomas Schmid, ex-ÖVP boss Sebastian Kurz and other high-ranking Turks in front of the prosecutor’s office and cited his mother’s reprimand as the motivation for this.
As usual, FPÖ boss Herbert Kickl got to work on it. In Nehammer’s speech, he recognized only “little grating” and “shaking responsibility, discarding the child, cleaning up, distracting and an unbelievable self-pity”. At the end of the legal investigation “it will become clear whether the ÖVP is a criminal organization”, the leader of the liberal party said, but “the problem is your high degree of moral neglect”, “that you do not know what is appropriate and what not”. Kickl also pulled a red card for National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP), who was accused by Schmid and sat in the chair behind him.
“ÖVP may be a corruption problem”
Confidence in politics is in the basement, said NEOS boss Beate Meinl-Reisinger, the ÖVP is also dragging everyone else into the abyss. The ÖVP’s election victory was “forged and bought”, Meinl-Reisinger also called for new elections. “The ÖVP has a corruption problem and maybe is a corruption problem.” Party colleague Stephanie Krisper – leader of the NEOS faction in the U-committee – explained: “We don’t understand that the investigation means rolling heads – because with a hydra it does nothing. We demand reforms.” She also addressed the Covid finance agency COFAG, which was only designed from the ground up “to make monitoring more difficult”.
Applications from NEOS to fight corruption, such as similar applications from the SPÖ, remained in the minority. The red application for new elections was ultimately only approved by the SPÖ and NEOS and was thus rejected. The Liberals were left alone with their vote of no confidence in the entire federal government. Several applications to set government deadlines for government projects failed because the ÖVP and the Greens said no.
Source: Krone
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