Svazek shares: – “Blue-Black is failing because of the Chancellor’s vanity”

Rather, it is due to the ‘vanity’ of Chancellor Karl Nehammer and his ÖVP, because they did not want to give up the position of head of government. Svazek himself has now definitively ruled out a move into federal politics.

When it comes to the three-party coalition consisting of ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS, “it still lacks the imagination as to where the content should come from,” she told the APA. Namely in terms of what is needed now. And not just minimal consensus or just headlines. In my opinion, this is once again the absolutely wrong answer to the open questions,” Svazek said about the ongoing coalition negotiations.

The fact that cooperation between the election winner FPÖ and the second-placed ÖVP did not materialize was not due to the person of the blue federal party leader, but rather to the vanity of Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP), who together with the ÖVP Neder -Austria – “because I see that other countries are “not really represented in the ÖVP at the moment” – I just wanted to keep the chancellor and absolutely did not want to give him up.

“I would now like to put forward the theory that it does not matter at all whether there is a Herbert Kickl at the head of the federal party, or a Mario Kunasek or even me. In my opinion, the ÖVP’s interest in retaining the chancellor always takes precedence over whoever leads the FPÖ. So Herbert Kickl’s argument doesn’t work for me.

Amused by the ÖVP’s ‘flirting’ with the right
Svazek finds the People’s Party’s flirtation with the right amusing, for example with the photo showing Nehammer at a dinner with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and in which Svazek points to a photo of her and Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and comments ” Everyone can dine with Nehammer. Espresso with il captain Matteo Salvini only the real righties responded. Nehammer always tries to steer myself in this direction politics and the current negotiations, then it cannot be right-wing, not like Karl Nehammer and not like the current ÖVP.”

For Svazek, who is responsible for the department, the recently adopted law changes in the field of nature conservation in Salzburg with the heavily criticized powerlessness of the State Environmental Prosecutor’s Office represent “nature conservation with a certain common sense and balance”. It is not enough for a single party “claiming to be the only voice in nature”. There is a particular need for those who make the land available: the farmers.

“For me, nature conservation is a partnership in which you really bring nature conservation to the area. This is how you keep what you have. Ensure that biodiversity is preserved. And that can only be done together. Many rifts have emerged over the past ten years, but now you see that there is more solidarity again.”

Reduction of the heating cost subsidy to “normal” level
There has been an extreme increase in contractual nature management over the past year and a half, “that is, more and more agricultural companies say that we want to participate and have nature conservation on our land. And that doesn’t come from somewhere, but because of this new access.” Farmers’ confidence in the state government has also increased. That’s why the money was reallocated from photovoltaic energy financing to contractual nature conservation, “because I’d rather we actually bring it to the area than discuss figures about which year we want to become carbon neutral.”

When asked how a cut in the heating subsidy in Salzburg could be reconciled with the FPÖ’s self-image as the “voice of the little man”, Svazek said that 2024 was an “outlier” because that year there was money from the federal government. Given the high energy costs, the state subsidy for heating was increased to a total of 600 euros. “We have now, as it were, reset it to 100 percent and reduced it to the normal 250 euros. Compared to Austria, we are still one of the states that pay out a lot.”

No Wikipedia entry “I used to be a minister”
The FPÖ leader was modest when asked whether she would run for governor at the next state elections in 2028. “In my opinion, after a year and a half of government responsibility, it would be presumptuous to think about the next position or the next career step, so to speak, because politics for me is not something that is necessarily a career. So other things count, honest work, serious work counts. If in three and a half years’ time it is judged that people believe that Marlene Svazek can also lead a federal state, then that will be reflected in an election result, and if it is different, I think many more things too.

In any case, the 32-year-old in Vienna again ruled out a step into federal politics: “I have a responsibility in the federal state, towards the election results and the voters, but also towards my regional group. This is not something you would give up for a Wikipedia article about how you used to be a minister, so to speak.”