Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has launched a public relations campaign with optimistic messages aimed at increasing public confidence in his governing coalition, a year before the elections and while his conservative party is the target of criticism, the DPA agency reports on Tuesday, according to Agerpres.
Karl Nehammer Photo: JOHN THYS / AFP / Profimedia
Karl Nehammer, who leads the Austrian People’s Party (OeVP), thus presented the campaign he titled “Believe in Austria!”. He admits that the population is suffering as a result of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and inflation, but “at the same time, we saw that the Austrian people are much stronger than many believed and we ourselves believed,” says the head of the Austrian government.
Nehammer does not announce any new projects in his campaign, but mentions anti-inflation measures, subsidies for renewable energy and combating illegal migration among the successes of his government, which is a coalition of the OeVP and the Greens.
The campaign is launched a year before the legislative elections, at a time when the Austrian People’s Party is in second place in voting intentions, with a percentage of 24%, behind the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), rated by 30%, according to a survey published earlier this month.
Nehammer and his policy against Romania’s accession to Schengen
We remind you that Austria insists that the Schengen system does not work and refuses to allow Romania and Bulgaria to join, arguing mainly on figures from the Austrian Ministry of the Interior: 100,000 “illegal border crossings” in Austria, of which 75,000 are not registered in any other country from the EU.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu confirmed on Monday evening that Romania opposes the access of two Austrian army officers at NATO meetings and accuses the Chancellor of Austria, Karl Nehammer, of hypocrisy regarding the position regarding Romania’s accession to the Schengen Area.
The Austrian political scientist Prof. Reinhard Heinisch commented in an interview for the Bulgarian national radio station BNR on the internal reason for the blockade imposed by the national conservative government in Vienna for the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen. Heinisch emphasized that, after next year’s parliamentary elections, Austria will give up its veto for Schengen.
“What could rather lead the government to give up the blockade are the interests of Austrian business. During the parliamentary debates, it was found that Austrian companies suffer losses due to the fact that Bulgaria and Romania are not yet in Schengen. The ruling People’s Party is not just a conservative party allied with the far right. It is a party that defends the interests of the business community, and business already understands that the veto hinders economic relations with Bulgaria and Romania,” said Reinhard Heinisch.
In elections earlier this year in Lower Austria, the traditional parties, the conservative ÖVP and the social democrats SPÖ, suffered historic defeats, while the far right gained ground. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer explained that the disastrous result achieved by the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) is mainly due to the last “years of crisis”. The ÖVP reached its worst result since 1945 and lost its absolute majority in the lower Austrian parliament.
