Dispute over eastern bypass

Hotly contested vegetables

Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler criticizes the planned eastern bypass in Wiener Neustadt.

(Bild: BMKÖS / HBF / Daniel Trippolt)

Concrete against potatoes - that's real toughness. Just like green against blue and black. The fact that Wiener Neustadt's eastern bypass runs over fertile farmland has the Green Vice-Chancellor up in arms. He clashes with the blue state transport councillor and the black mayor.  

Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler ventured into the depths of regional and local politics on Tuesday. "It is a betrayal of the population if you want to build such a massive road construction project over the most fertile farmland," said the Green Party leader, taking aim at Wiener Neustadt's planned eastern bypass.

No room for potatoes & co.
And Kogler added: "If we carry on building over concrete like this, future generations will have no more areas where they can grow vegetables." The Vice Chancellor demanded: "The state and the concreting metropolis of Wiener Neustadt should stop this madness immediately."

The eastern bypass of Wiener Neustadt stands for more traffic safety and will bring massive relief to city traffic.

Udo Landbauer, Verkehrslandesrat von NÖ

Bild: Endl-Photography

Counterattack from Lower Austria
This prompted Udo Landbauer (FPÖ), the regional councillor for transport, to accuse Kogler of being "completely unqualified in traffic matters". The project had been approved by the authorities and courts: "We live in a constitutional state and not in a green eco-dictatorship!" ÖVP city leader Klaus Schneeberger tells Kogler: "The real betrayal would be if we, as those responsible, remained inactive."

The Vice-Chancellor should let the residents of Nestroystrasse tell him what it is like to live with 15,000 cars and trucks on the doorstep every day.

Klaus Schneeberger, Bürgermeister von Wiener Neustadt

Bild: P. Huber

Of concrete heads and natural jewels
However, Olga Voglauer, Secretary General of the Green Party, brought the verbal exchange to a close: she identified "concrete heads in the FPÖ and ÖVP who want to continue destroying natural jewels." The future of Wiener Neustadt is "solely endangered by the concreting rage of the Lower Austrian People's Party and the FPÖ.