"Krone" commentary

“Great” – Friendly words from the coalition

Commentary on the major issues affecting Austria: Klaus Herrmann, Managing Editor-in-Chief

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

"Very good", "very relaxed", "very good atmosphere" - these were the comments made by members of the new government to Ö1 after the first meeting of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday. There was more to come. "Exciting", "a good experience", "very consensus-oriented", also "special" and "great".

Exciting! After all, the representatives of the three parties, who have now come together after all, did not find any friendly words after the collapse of the turquoise-red-pink coalition negotiations at the beginning of January.

Now they are making every effort to show that they are united. And there is also activity: the first decisions are being made faster than expected. The rent cap is being introduced earlier and more extensively, smokers are being hit earlier and deeper in the pocket, and the coalition is also stepping on the gas when it comes to abolishing the climate bonus.

All of this in harmony - although some of these measures are wearing a deep blue mask because they were cooked up at the beginning of the ultimately failed negotiations between the FPÖ and ÖVP.

This means that Turquoise-Red-Pink cannot expect applause from the blue side for a long time yet. It goes without saying that the but-not-Chancellor Kickl went on a massive rant against the new coalition in his Ash Wednesday speech.

It is hardly surprising that internal SPÖ disruptive fire would come from Burgenland. Which would be surprising: If this "great" harmony within the government did not soon develop deep cracks.