Vice in the summer interview

Werner Kogler: “Lena Schilling was the right choice!”

Werner Kogler defends Lena Schilling and warns against the rhetoric of FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl.

(Bild: Klemens Groh)

Vice-Chancellor and Green Party leader Werner Kogler explained on Tuesday evening in the Puls 24 summer interview why he stands by his decision to appoint Lena Schilling as a member of the EU Parliament and why - in view of the recent political attacks in the USA and Slovakia - Herbert Kickl's rhetoric is also dangerous in our country.

Yesterday, Kogler answered Meinrad Knapp's questions with unusually clear words and without long, convoluted sentences. "How much damage has Lena Schilling done to the Greens?" was one of them. Kogler's reply: "She was the right choice. We did the same, because we are an alliance party. We deliberately addressed the climate protection movement with the climate activists."

"She is a young fighter"
Kogler has "often seen Schilling at panel discussions". The decisive reason why they wanted to go into the EU elections with her was: "She is a young campaigner for climate protection." After all, young people in the EU Parliament should also be able to "take their future into their own hands. I think this is the right decision."

Werner Kogler on Lena Schilling: "She recognizes that she has made mistakes at one point or another."

(Bild: APA/HANS KLAUS TECHT)

Schilling has also learned. Kogler: "She realizes that she has made mistakes here and there. She is also sorry and she has also apologized. But now is the time for her to fight for climate protection in the European Parliament!"

 "There is a lot of aggression online, but I don't feel directly threatened"
Knapp also asked him whether he was worried about copycats in Austria after the attacks on Donald Trump and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico? Kogler: "There is a lot of aggression online, but I don't feel directly threatened and I'm not worried about myself." However, "we have to be careful and also become more careful in Austria. Overall, it's still better in Austria, but there's no guarantee and that's why we have to warn against the beginnings."

The rhetoric of FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl is a thorn in Kogler's side. It is "politically very difficult to reject and is unacceptable when Kickl calls for wanted lists, which he can do in his leading party. This is an implicit call to lower the threshold of violence. It is a call for intolerance." And for Kogler, the following applies: "No tolerance of intolerance."

For Kogler, Herbert Kickl's rhetoric is sometimes "a call to lower the threshold of violence".

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA)

The Green leader also comments on the dispute with the ÖVP - keyword renaturation law: "There is an honest, major concern behind it, it's about environmental protection and nature conservation throughout Europe. The Greens are making the difference. We have weighed this up carefully and had every step legally secured." Everything else should now be decided by the courts. The Greens had stuck to the line of "more environmental and climate protection" throughout the entire legislative period. Kogler with a side-swipe at Chancellor Karl Nehammer: "In this respect, we have shown our true colors."

Kogler gets on better with ÖVP Chancellor Nehammer than with Kurz
When asked whether he gets on better with Nehammer than with former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Kogler immediately answers: "Yes!" without waiting for the question to be fully answered. The fact that he insisted on replacing Kurz in October 2021 was a matter of conviction. At that time, "it came to light: The misuse of taxpayers' money, an internal ÖVP feud involving a not particularly reputable daily newspaper. The main no-go for me was the tax money!" Continuing the coalition with Kurz as chancellor was "no longer an option".

For Kogler, continuing the coalition with Sebastian Kurz in October 2021 was "no longer an option".

(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

Puls 24 also made use of ChatGPT's artificial intelligence to ask Kogler an unusual question: Which comic figure he would be and what conclusions this would allow us to draw about his personality. Kogler's answer was equally unusual: "I'm three: Tick, Trick and Track, Donald Duck's nephews. I think they're relatively tough. In terms of politics, I can conclude from this that I am definitely radical when it comes to fighting for my life's concerns: reconciling climate protection and environmental protection with economic rationality and social security."