First plenary session

Fierce accusations and trench warfare in parliament

Kickl is looking forward to his chancellorship, Eva-Maria Holzleitner and Andreas Babler to the opposition. Schallenberg spoke as chancellor, Stocker as ÖVP leader.

(Bild: Roland Schlager/APA/picturedesk.com)

In the first plenary session of the year, domestic top politicians seamlessly picked up where they left off last year. Despite the change in circumstances following the end of the negotiations for the Zuckerl coalition, there was fierce debate and argument.

First plenary session of the new year. The seventh in the current legislative period. Characterized by emotions. Fierce accusations fly through the House. Shattered dreams of a coalition between the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS as well as a more than likely FPÖ Chancellor Herbert Kickl have an intense effect. In the midst of it all, once again short-term Chancellor Schallenberg, Alexander II so to speak, with a statesmanlike speech.

SPÖ leader Babler in a new role
He urges unity in difficult times, respect for human rights, points out Austria's potential and makes it clear that his country will remain a stable and reliable partner. And in this context, he rejects a "drawbridge high mentality" - probably meant in the direction of the FPÖ, with whom he himself definitely does not want to govern. The well-intentioned words are heard, but the others are eager for a reckoning. Things get heated during the current budget debate.

SPÖ leader Andreas Babler attacks the ÖVP and FPÖ Chancellor-to-be Herbert Kickl.

(Bild: picturedesk.com/ROLAND SCHLAGER / APA / picturedesk.com)

SPÖ leader Andreas Babler and his party are not sparing with their attacks on the ÖVP and the FPÖ's future chancellor Herbert Kickl. They hold up quotes from the recent past, dripping with mutual dislike, to Black and Blue. Babler to Kickl: "You railed about the swingers' club of the power-hungry, today you're swinging along nicely." It goes back and forth, even the Greens join in the grumbling. Who is to blame for the domestic political chaos of recent months? The ÖVP around leader Christian Stocker and the NEOS have singled out Babler and his entourage. But there is also some focus on this within the SPÖ, as the "Krone" learned from frustrated negotiators.

Kucher: "Prevent Kickl"
Red MP Kai Jan Krainer, on the other hand, is lashing out at the Chancellor's party - including interim Finance Minister Gunter Mayr, who is probably not responsible for the misery. He is not a finance minister, but a "propaganda minister". Murmurs in the plenum. The pace is maintained. Mayr and the ÖVP counter with the 6.39 billion euro savings package, with which an EU deficit procedure could be averted.

"I don't know of a single EU country that would do this voluntarily," says Mayr. Many of the measures now envisaged were the basis of the negotiations for the "Zuckerl" coalition. "Mr. Babler should be familiar with them." The FPÖ, on the other hand, referred to the "three-day negotiation success" on the budget, which the others had not managed to achieve in three months. SPÖ party leader Philip Kucher to ÖVP leader Christian Stocker: "Do some soul-searching and prevent People's Chancellor Kickl." Probably not going to happen.

Nothing productive was decided on this intensive day, but fundamental things were. For example, that the Green Secretary General Olga Voglauer will not be extradited by the National Council. The reason for the corresponding application by the Klagenfurt regional court was a private prosecution for defamation by the right-wing extremist Martin Sellner, whom she had accused of showing the Hitler salute.

Probably the only sentence that everyone involved would sign is the conclusion from Schallenberg's article: "The next federal government will have its hands full."

Black castling
However, the ÖVP is also talking about functionaries who are not (yet) in the National Council. For example, the new Secretary General Alexander Pröll. As the "Krone" learned, there were plans to give the son of former ÖVP Vice-Chancellor Josef Pröll a seat in the National Council "as befits a General Secretary". As is well known, the seat vacated was that of former Chancellor Karl Nehammer. According to insiders, the venture is also likely to have failed due to a veto from Upper Austria. "Not another Lower Austrian," is what they are said to have said. 

Plakolm decided against her compatriot from Upper Austria.

(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

Nehammer's mandate ultimately went to Upper Austria and Johanna Jachs in a roundabout way. The 33-year-old lawyer was able to enter via a regional constituency mandate because State Secretary Claudia Plakolm gave this up and took Nehammer's seat from the federal list. However, as the seat of the designated governor of Salzburg, Karoline Edtstadler, will also become vacant in the foreseeable future and the formation of the government between the FPÖ and ÖVP is likely to result in changes, Pröll's succession to the National Council is probably only a matter of time.