Turmoil in the Bundesrat

ÖVP reaches agreement with FPÖ: Greens no longer a parliamentary group

The meeting room of the Federal Council

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

Now it has actually happened: The Greens are no longer a parliamentary group in the Bundesrat. Now that the (still) governing party only has four MPs after the Styrian elections, this status had to be voted on in the provincial chamber. However, the (still) governing partner ÖVP and the FPÖ voted against this on Thursday. 

Marco Schreuder, former head of the Greens' parliamentary group in the Bundesrat, spoke of an "undemocratic coalition".

The fact that the ÖVP, which is holding coalition talks with the SPÖ and NEOS, is making a pact with the Kickl-FPÖ of all parties in order to weaken an opposition party is both revealing and frightening.

Sigrid Maurer, geschäftsführende Klubobfrau der Grünen im Nationalrat

This will now change for the Greens
If the Federal Council gives its consent, fewer than five members of a party can form a parliamentary group. This is decisive, for example, for voting rights in committees or participation in the presidium of the provincial chamber, which the Greens will now be denied in future. Schreuder complained that the Greens had been deprived of essential opposition rights by the ÖVP and FPÖ.

ÖVP and FPÖ want to "slow down" the Greens
Since 1996, there have been eight occasions when the majority in the Bundesrat has voted in favor of forming a parliamentary group, the parliament announced: Seven times it concerned the Greens and once the FPÖ. The ÖVP and FPÖ apparently wanted to thwart the critical opposition in the Bundesrat - "they will not succeed with this cowardly attack", said the Greens.

"It was to be expected that the Freedom Party would seize the first opportunity to silence the Greens in the Federal Council," said Sigrid Maurer, executive leader of the Greens in the National Council. However, the fact that the ÖVP, which is actually negotiating with the SPÖ and NEOS about a coalition, is now "making deals with the Freedom Party to curtail the rights of an opposition party" is as frightening as it is revealing.

Central parliamentary rights lost
With the withdrawal of parliamentary group status, the Greens will be deprived of central parliamentary rights such as the right to vote in committees or participate in the presidential debate. "The ÖVP and FPÖ obviously want to slow down the critical opposition in the Bundesrat - they will not succeed with this cowardly attack," concluded Schreuder and Maurer.

Freedom Party astonished
Andreas Spanring, parliamentary group leader of the Freedom Party Federal Councillors, expressed his surprise at the uproar. The fact is that, according to the rules of procedure, the Greens automatically lose their parliamentary group status if they lose a fifth federal councillor. "We are not voting on this circumstance, because the Greens are no longer entitled to parliamentary group status with only four federal councillors, this is regulated by law".

The fact is that, according to the rules of procedure, the Greens automatically lose their parliamentary group status if they lose a fifth federal councillor.

Andreas Spanring, Fraktionsvorsitzender der Freiheitlichen Bundesräte

According to Spanring, the fact that the Greens can still form a parliamentary group has already been granted to them seven times, but now it is no longer foreseeable that the Greens will become stronger again in the future, "rather the opposite".