Asylum Councilor Gottfried Waldhäusl has the need for help of Ukrainian refugees in Lower Austria checked. Last week he ordered that all displaced persons be checked “with regard to their vehicles and a possible lavish lifestyle”, the FPÖ politician announced in a broadcast on Saturday a “‘action sharp’ once morest Ukrainian luxury cars”. At the same time, Waldhäusl accused the green-turquoise federal government of an “asylum lie”.
According to the broadcast, around 12,000 Ukrainians are registered in Lower Austria, of whom around 10,350 are in basic care. “Every day I get complaints from the population regarding luxury cars from displaced Ukrainians who get basic supplies from us. I also don’t understand why we should support someone who drives their children to kindergarten in a 70,000-euro SUV,” said Waldhäusl. According to the broadcast, the accommodation providers are involved in the check. “If it is determined that there is no need for help, the basic services will be canceled,” it said.
“I don’t see that the assets of the Lower Austrians are counted towards social assistance, while the foreign assets of the expellees are not used to determine the need for help. I will certainly not support social abuse, but will fight it, there is also a lot of tax money at stake,” shared Waldhäusl with.
Waldhäusl locates an “asylum lie” because the federal government compared the applications from January 2023 with December 2022. A decrease was recorded. But the numbers are increasing: “You have to compare January 2022 with January 2023.” According to the Ministry of the Interior, 3,349 asylum applications were recorded at the beginning of 2022, this year in January almost 4,300 – i.e. 28 percent more. “If we start this year like this and nothing is changed, then I can predict with certainty today that we will be heading towards 140,000 asylum applications by the end of the year,” the Freedom Party accused the federal government of failure. “Not only is the safety of our wives and daughters at stake, it is also putting a huge strain on our social system. We can no longer afford it. We need the money for our own people,” he explained.
