Gewessler's department

ÖVP wants to get one over on the Greens with these plans

The Green Minister has not made herself particularly popular with her coalition partner.

(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

The coalition crisis is apparently shifting to the streets. The Chancellor presented his ideas on infrastructure expansion - which is actually the responsibility of Greens Minister Leonore Gewessler.

It is no secret that Greens Minister Leonore Gewessler has fallen out with her coalition partner. However, this became apparent once again at an ÖVP press conference on Monday. There, Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer, together with Finance Minister Magnus Brunner, presented his ideas for infrastructure expansion in Austria: The noticeable successes in this area - for which Gewessler is responsible - are too few: "The time when ideology determined infrastructure expansion must be over," Nehammer told the Greens, who had their own press appearance at Vienna's Westbahnhof at the same time."

6.5 hours of congestion

is formed on the south-east bypass in Vienna on 45 weeks, four days a week. That alone represents 500 million euros in congestion costs and 75,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

New opportunity for Austrians begins after election"
The ÖVP leader speaks of dogmatic transport policy, delaying tactics and illusions regarding private transport. He wants to "push ahead with missing infrastructure projects" if he is re-elected on September 29. Then the coalition with the Greens will end and "a new opportunity will begin for the Austrians!"

If the ÖVP has its way, 44.5 billion euros will be invested in infrastructure by 2030; 10 billion of this in the energy sector, 21 billion in the rail network, 11.1 billion in roads and 2.4 billion in broadband expansion.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

Gewessler was particularly critical of the road construction projects that were stopped by Gewessler, such as the Lobau Tunnel (S 1), the Marchfeld Expressway (S 8) and others from the federal provinces (see chart), which the ÖVP now wants to prioritize. "60 percent of commuters in Vienna travel by car, and traffic jams form on the tangent 45 weeks a year, four days a week, for around six and a half hours a day," says university professor Friedrich Zibuschka, invited as a traffic expert, underpinning the black view.

FPÖ-Landbauer: "Gewessler's poisonous green policy"
 Critical reactions came from the opposition: "The Chancellor has obviously misunderstood the word road campaign. Instead of implementing reforms, Nehammer is once again presenting all kinds of plans that he himself has not implemented in recent years," says NEOS General Secretary Douglas Hoyos. "Nehammer has so far done nothing to put an end to Gewessler's poisonous green policies," criticizes Lower Austria's Vice Minister Udo Landbauer (FPÖ).