"Krone" commentary

Already gone

Conny Bischofberger comments on current moments for the "Krone"(Bild: stock.adobe.com, Krone KREATIV)

Brussels in the early hours of Friday afternoon. The sky over Place du Luxembourg is overcast, it's a cool 16 degrees. Othmar Karas stands on the sixth floor of the EU Parliament and takes one last look over his empty office. Drizzle drizzles on the windows. "There's no melancholy, just gratitude," says the First Vice-President quietly as he says goodbye.

There are boxes and pictures in front of the room, the last of which is his favorite quote on a dark blue background. It comes from Martin Luther King and describes the essence of politics. That it is not about what is popular or diplomatic. It's about what your conscience tells you. What is right.

Karas does not even utter half a sentence about the political personnel debates in Vienna. Neos, the Greens, some provincial governors and, most recently, Alpbach President Andreas Treichl have spoken out in favor of Karas as EU Commissioner. The SPÖ and Neos are calling for a public hearing for potential candidates in the Austrian National Council - a matter of course for every top position in the EU Parliament. Whether this will impress the ÖVP, however, is more than questionable.

Almost unnoticed and unimpressed, Othmar Karas leaves the House shortly before 2 p.m. after a quarter of a century. "Is there a video of this?" a journalist asks later in his office. "He's already gone," he is told. A strong departure, perhaps not forever.