Now it is important not to “paper over” anyone when it comes to implementation. He believes that the state government’s restrictive wind power policy is a “threat to energy security” and the business location, as he said in an interview with APA – and as the state councilor responsible for environmental impact assessments, he is promoting large-scale wind power projects.
“Beer party makes democracy ridiculous”
Kaineder makes no secret of the fact that, despite the current poor poll ratings, he would like to see the Greens back in government after the election. He does not say with whom. The viability of a government depends on the program and a working relationship. He therefore does not want to commit himself to how many partners such an alliance would tolerate, but: “Basically, I think it is a utopia to form a government with a KPÖ or a beer party. The beer party mainly makes democracy look ridiculous.”
Kaineder’s balance sheet
“The ÖVP and the Greens have very different views in many areas and a lot has really come forward,” is his assessment of the Greens’ first participation in a federal government, which is as positive as expected. “We have abolished bracket creep. I don’t know how many SPÖ chancellors have promised this before,” he says, “the whole of Europe envies us for the climate ticket” and “it is the first government in a very long time that is working through,” adding: “Although it is not easy between the ÖVP and the Greens.” As part of the most recent personnel package, it was also possible to “break free of the climate and energy plan. That was an ideological blockade of the ÖVP that was almost impossible to break.”
Praise for Gewessler
He cannot understand the criticism of Leonore Gewessler’s solo effort on the renaturation law. The fact that a member of the government makes decisions in his own area of competence, “the ÖVP ministers have done this several times, against our approval, against our resistance, but that is the practice in this government,” he says, and heaps plenty of praise on the minister: “She pushed through the climate ticket, played a major role in the eco-social tax reform and the investment package for the railways.” The Austria-wide public transport ticket was “in the government program of numerous previous governments. And nobody implemented it because it is extremely difficult.” Gewessler managed it in two years.
Little effort
He can understand the farmers’ fear that they will not be compensated for renaturation measures, but believes it is unfounded: “There is now a conscious attempt to stir up emotions in the election campaign.” In the next two years, “the implementation of the renaturation law must be structured in such a way that we do not rip anyone off. We certainly do not want this to become a huge expense for the farmers,” he stresses, and it is also planned that the farmers will be compensated. 80 percent already have experience with the ÖPUL program, where land is taken out of use in return for compensation.
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For him, a key issue for the future is soil protection, where he insists on a quantitative target. “People have long understood that we cannot carry on like this, the concreting must stop.” Upper Austria needs “a soil protection law” because “there is so much dedicated, undeveloped building land here that you could rebuild the city of Vienna within the borders of Upper Austria,” he calculates. These areas must be mobilized. The argument that is repeatedly put forward that if land use is restricted, some communities would no longer even be able to build a kindergarten – “I don’t know off the top of my head how many kindergartens there are in the city of Vienna…” – is “simply incorrect information” in view of these figures.
He is highly critical of Upper Austria’s energy policy: “The negative attitude of the black and blue parties towards wind power is a threat to energy security in Upper Austria and to the supply of cheap energy for industry,” he warns. “I always thought the ÖVP was an economic party. But this very issue shows that the coalition with the FPÖ is more important to them than Austria as a business location.” The fact that Deputy Governor Manfred Haimbuchner (FPÖ) has spoken out against an end to the supply contracts with Gazprom shows: “The FPÖ is a Putin party. We should remain dependent on a warmonger for as long as possible, who can increase our energy costs in one fell swoop if he wants to.”
Kaineder fears that at the same time as the plan for priority zones for renewable energies required by the EU, Upper Austria is working on an exclusion plan for wind power, the exclusion zones of which will be as large as the entire state, which would be “a blow to energy security”. Until then, his offer to all potential wind power investors applies: “I am the head of the EIA authority. If something is planned in an environmentally friendly way, then we will process these applications quickly and carefully and see that we can approve wind farms. Because we need them.”