Svazek lashes out:

“Blue-Black fails because of the chancellor’s vanity”

Like her party, Salzburg FPÖ leader Marlene Svazek does not have a good opinion of the planned three-party coalition.

(Bild: APA/AFP/Piero CRUCIATTI)

Salzburg's FPÖ leader and deputy governor Marlene Svazek does not believe that her federal party leader Herbert Kickl is the real reason why a federal government consisting of the FPÖ and ÖVP has failed to materialize.

Rather, it is due to the "vanity" of Chancellor Karl Nehammer and his ÖVP for not wanting to relinquish the post of head of government. Svazek himself has now firmly ruled out a switch to federal politics.

With regard to the three-party coalition of ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS, she "still lacks the imagination as to what the content of the coalition should be," she told APA. Namely in terms of what is needed now. And not just minimum consensus or just headlines. In my view, this is once again the absolutely wrong answer to the open questions," said Svazek on the ongoing coalition negotiations.

"I would now put forward the theory that it makes no difference whether Herbert Kickl is at the head of the federal party or Mario Kunasek or myself. In my view, the ÖVP's interest in retaining the chancellor always takes precedence over the person whoever heads the FPÖ.

(Bild: FPÖ Stmk)

The fact that a cooperation between the election winner FPÖ and the second-placed ÖVP did not come about was not due to the person of the blue federal party leader, but to the vanity of Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP), who together with the ÖVP Lower Austria - "because I don't really see other states represented in the ÖVP at the moment" - simply wanted to keep the chancellor and did not want to give him up.

"I would now put forward the theory that it wouldn't matter whether Herbert Kickl or Mario Kunasek or myself were at the head of the federal party. In my view, the ÖVP's interest in retaining the chancellor always takes precedence over the person whoever heads the FPÖ. So the Herbert Kickl argument doesn't work for me."

Amused by the ÖVP's "flirtation" with the right-wing
Svazek finds "the flirtation" of the People's Party with the right-wing amusing, for example with the photo showing Nehammer having dinner with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, to which Svazek responded with a photo of her and Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and the comment "Anyone can have dinner with Nehammer. Espresso with il capitano Matteo Salvini only the real right-wingers". Nehammer always tries to "stage himself in this direction. But if you look at his politics and the current negotiations, it can't be right-wing, not as Karl Nehammer and not as the current ÖVP."

For Svazek, who is responsible for this area, the recent changes to nature conservation legislation in Salzburg, including the heavily criticized disempowerment of the State Environmental Ombudsman, are "nature conservation with a certain common sense and balance". It is not enough for a single party "to claim to be the only voice in nature". In particular, those who provide the land, i.e. the farmers, are also needed.

"For me, nature conservation is a partnership, where you really bring nature conservation to the land. Preserving what you have. Making sure that biodiversity is maintained. And that can only be done together. A lot of rifts have been opened up over the last ten years, but now you can see that there is more cooperation again."

Reduction of the heating subsidy to a "normal" level
There have been extreme increases in contractual nature conservation over the last one and a half years, "so more and more farms are saying we want to get involved and have nature conservation on our land. And that doesn't come from anywhere, but from this new approach." Farmers' trust in the state government has also increased again. As a result, money has been shifted from photovoltaic funding to contractual nature conservation, "because I'd rather we actually put it on the land than discuss some figures about the year from which we want to become climate-neutral".

When asked how a reduction in the heating subsidy in Salzburg can be reconciled with the FPÖ's self-image as the "voice of the little man", Svazek said that 2024 was an "outlier" because there was money from the federal government that year, which was used to increase the state's heating subsidy to a total of 600 euros in view of the high energy costs. "We have now put it back to 100 percent, so to speak, and reduced it to the normal 250 euros. Compared to the rest of Austria, we are still among the federal states that pay out a lot."

No Wikipedia entry "I used to be a minister"
 The FPÖ leader was modest when asked whether she would like to be governor in the next state elections in 2028. "In my view, after one and a half years in government, it would be presumptuous to think about the next function or the next career step, so to speak, because politics is not something that is a career for me per se. Other things count, honest work, serious work counts. If, in three and a half years' time, people think that Marlene Svazek can also lead a federal state, then that will be reflected in an election result, and if it's different, I will also think of many other things."

In any case, the 32-year-old once again ruled out a move to federal politics in Vienna: "I have a responsibility to the federal state, to the election result and to the voters, but also to my regional group. That's not something you would give up for a Wikipedia entry that you were once a minister."