Shortly after the announcement of his re-election, Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen spoke on Monday evening in the ORF “ZiB 2” about the challenges ahead and summarized his previous term in office. For the most part, he expressed himself diplomatically – but with a statement about ex-chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) he made people sit up.
When Kurz took a “step aside” as chancellor and went to the National Council as club president of the ÖVP, he knew that “that won’t be long,” said Van der Bellen. Since Parliament “wasn’t his stage”, “that was clear”, he said.
President: Kickl “still” a burden
He made the following small dig at the direction of FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl. He fired him as interior minister in 2019 at the suggestion of Kurz, calling it a “burden” at the time. He was “still” one of them, the Federal President explained. In other respects, Van der Bellen unsurprisingly kept a low profile. For example, regarding the turbulent time after the release of the Ibiza video: “What is discussed behind the wallpaper door remains confidential,” he explained.
Van der Bellen was clearly reluctant to talk about the corruption allegations that the ÖVP continued to support after the departure – keyword U-Committee. There are “significant differences” between the affair surrounding Thomas Schmid’s chats and the Ibiza video and its fallout. Ibiza was clearly about undermining press freedom and driving tenders to certain companies.
“Justice works correctly”
Van der Bellen admitted that his statement “We’re not like that” may have been too strong given the Ibiza affair. ‘We don’t want to be like that’ should in any case apply. Sometimes he might have said more publicly, the president said, for example, getting rid of the daily excitement about this and all the talking and waiting. Of course, some things were worrying, but in the case of the chats, the prosecutor’s office established that the presumption of innocence applies, the Federal President emphasized. “I think the judiciary works well,” he said.
In an interview with Martin Thür, Van der Bellen denied that he had too little criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was “not a friend of Putin” just because he had fulfilled his duties as Federal President, including contacts with the Russian head of state.
Source: Krone
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