2023-12-25 05:23:05
Lower Austria’s governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner is again sharply criticizing the Greens. In the APA interview, the ÖVP politician accused the federal coalition partner of waging a “campaign against commuters” and insisted on planned transport projects such as the Lobau Tunnel. Despite currently poor poll numbers for the People’s Party, Mikl-Leitner sees “intact chances of achieving a good result” in the EU and National Council elections in 2024.
The state governor renewed her accusation against Environment and Transport Minister Leonore Gewessler of wanting to abolish the commuter allowance. The Greens recently announced reform. Mikl-Leitner also criticized the position of the alliance partner in the federal government with regard to the demand for tougher penalties for climate adhesives as well as transport projects such as the Vienna Outer Ring Expressway (S1) with the Lobau Tunnel and the Marchfeld Expressway (S8).
For the Lobau Tunnel, “there are democratic decisions that need to be implemented,” and it is “an obligation of the federal government, not a proposal for discussion,” emphasized Mikl-Leitner: “The Greens are trying to prevent the project with legal maneuvers.” The state of Lower Austria recently filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court (VfGH). The state governor further explained that industry and business should “not be viewed as enemies, as the Greens often do, but above all as partners.” In times of climate change, innovations are needed.
Mikl-Leitner has repeatedly made people sit up and take notice with her demands on the federal government – for example, she demanded stricter rules for naturalization and measures for better integration. When asked whether she was dissatisfied with the work of the federal ÖVP, she said: “I am known for taking a very clear stand when something is not going well or is going in the wrong direction.” Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel on October 7 and the weeks after it “showed a lot of anti-Semitic tendencies across Europe and made parallel societies visible,” she explained. It is very important to “take action against anti-Semitism, and especially against those who trample on our basic principles or do not accept the hand extended to voluntary integration. We have tried to persuade for many years. Now we need consequences and tougher ones Punish.”
The ÖVP state party leader described the EU election and the National Council election in 2024 as a “very big challenge”. She believes a “good” result for the People’s Party is possible – despite surveys showing that the blacks will clearly lose first place. Federal party leader Karl Nehammer will “do everything to position the ÖVP as a force of the center. If the edges are drifting more and more to the left and right, there is a lot of room here for the ÖVP, for a politics of the center and, above all, for reason .” She is sticking with Nehammer as the top candidate: He acts “professionally in his role as Chancellor and has made a name for himself nationally and internationally.”
When asked whether the signs point to a coalition between black and blue after the National Council election, the state governor said: “The Chancellor has taken a very clear position here: no cooperation with (FPÖ leader Herbert, note) Kickl.” The former Interior Minister ruled out a return to federal politics: “I would like to be the governor of Lower Austria, and with a lot of heart and commitment.”
By taking over the chairmanship of the Carinthia State Governors’ Conference at the beginning of 2024, Mikl-Leitner wants to make strengthening voluntary work and volunteer work a priority topic. The task must be to “turn coexistence into coexistence”: “With volunteer work and voluntary work, we can succeed in getting migrants out of the parallel society and integrating them into our community of values.”
With a view to her home state, Mikl-Leitner stated that her central project was to strengthen Lower Austria as a business location – science and research play an important role in this. It is “a very clear goal that we bring a Nobel Prize to Lower Austria within the next 20 years.” The federal state should “become one of the leading smart and sustainable regions in all of Europe. We are on the right track.”
With regard to the decree for the Lower Austrian state administration, according to which the gender star, gap, colon and Binnen-I are dispensed with, it is about easily understandable and readable notices, said Mikl-Leitner: “Of course I know that the Left absolutely want the gender star and, according to right-wingers, women should be invisible in language. Both are nonsense.” Lower Austria follows the recommendations of the German Spelling Council. “The council is responsible for the official regulations in the German-speaking area. Asterisks and the like are therefore a fantasy language that has no place in public administration,” explained the state leader.
Regarding the Alfred Riedl case – the community association president is criticized for real estate transactions in his home community of Grafenwörth (Tulln district) – “I have said everything,” Mikl-Leitner stated. She described the optics as “very bad” in the summer. “That is a matter for the association of municipalities,” said the state governor. Whether her party colleague remains mayor is a matter for the community, she added.
2023 was a “very challenging year,” reflected Mikl-Leitner, whose party lost the absolute majority in the state parliament and state government in the state elections at the end of January. She emphasized that Black-Blue had, for example, taken measures with care thousands, housing and heating subsidies and the abolition of the GIS state levy that “reach directly to the compatriots and, above all, ensure social balance.” They have “found a way of professional cooperation” with the FPÖ: “We have a working agreement with more than 200 points, and we are working through it step by step.”
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