The harsh attacks of Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) in the “Krone” interview against FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl do not leave the Blues alone. “The internal asylum statistics expose Karner as a verbal boaster of the worst kind and master of broken promises to the Austrian people,” FPÖ security spokesman Hannes Amesbauer complained on Thursday. According to him, Kickl was the “most successful interior minister in recent years”, while Karner was an “asylum failure”.
The trigger for the blue tantrum was an excavation at Karner near Kickl, one of his predecessors as Interior Minister. During Karner’s time as interior minister, asylum seekers had fallen into basic care. The current FPÖ boss, on the other hand, is only crazy about talking, according to the ÖVP politician.
However, for FPÖ politician Amesbauer, Karner’s statements are just a “distraction from its own failures, repeated desperate failures and attempts to patch Kickl without any substance”. Karner only wants to shift responsibility for the “unprecedented asylum chaos” – again and again to the EU. Amesbauer: “This is asylum policy, brand name ÖVP. Lots of wind and nothing behind it.”
FPÖ brings other numerical examples
According to Karner, Interior Minister Kickl had 26,500 asylum seekers and beneficiaries of basic care after a year. After one year of Interior Minister Karner, there are 24,000 asylum seekers in basic care. Amesbauer counters this with other figures: “A year of Interior Minister Karner means more than 100,000 asylum applications – most of them from Afghans. A year of Interior Minister Karner also means that in Austria about two percent of the population within the EU-27, about 13 percent of all illegal immigrants apply for asylum.” And about 92 percent of the applications and therefore about 93,300 applications are new asylum applications, which were given from illegal to immigrants.
Amesbauer praises Kickl’s work as interior minister
The FPÖ politician also refers to Kickl’s performance as interior minister at the time: “He managed to bring the number of applications in 2018 to well below 14,000 – and only 5,800 of them were newly arrived asylum seekers. That was the success of a fair, consistent asylum policy.”
Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) and Karner, on the other hand, had set up a “welcome service” for illegal immigrants instead of actual border guards – instead of being “gatekeepers” against illegal immigration, they had turned the policemen into “tourist guides”. “.
ÖVP, media, inflation: FPÖ lashes out
A day before New Year’s Eve, the FPÖ lashed out verbally. There were three broadcasts on different topics. In addition to Amesbauer’s on asylum, the PVV is calling for a subcommittee to influence the media. In a third broadcast, the Blues accuse the federal government of “absolute silence” on the issue of the Presicommission on fuel. Nothing has happened since the committee’s first meeting at the end of September. “Nehammer, his green vice-chancellor Kogler and minister Kocher are apparently on a relaxing winter vacation,” criticized FPÖ social spokeswoman Dagmar Belakowitsch, calling once again to clear the way for new elections.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
