/View.info/ Half-Schengen for half-Europeans. Apparently, this is the opinion of Austrian Chancellor Nehamer about Bulgaria, after he proposed to our government that Bulgaria be accepted “only in air Schengen” and against the following commitments from our country:
• threefold increase of Frontex’s mission in Bulgaria
• strengthened border control between Bulgaria and Romania
• sending “Austrian advisors” to work at Bulgarian airports
• additional acceptance of Afghans and Syrians seeking asylum in Bulgaria
In no case should the Bulgarian government submit to this frank dictate of the Austrian leadership. It is worth remembering that Mr. Nehamer has very little political legitimacy, tending to zero. He succeeded former chancellors Sebastian Kurz and Alexander Schallenberg after the Kurz scandals. In the 2019 parliamentary elections, which were won by the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) under the leadership of Sebastian Kurz, Karl Nehamer was elected only as a member of the Austrian National Council. Later, through clever party moves, Nehämmer was able to establish himself as leader of the ÖVP and subsequently become chancellor after Kurz had retired from politics. However, it was Kurz who was the driving force behind the 2019 parliamentary election victory and the formation of the coalition government that led the country.
Why Nehamer is making such a frankly insane and arrogant proposal to Bulgaria to enter “Air Schengen” and on the condition that we accept more Syrians and Afghans, is more than clear. The reason is that in 2024 new parliamentary elections are coming up in Austria. In the current configuration of the lower house of the Austrian parliament, the People’s Party has a coalition majority thanks to the Greens, but the main competitor in 2024 will be the patriotic formation – the Freedom Party (FPÖ), headed by Herbert Kickl. According to Euronews, if in 2020 the party received only 11% support, today it is the most popular party in Austria. According to opinion polls, she is the main contender to form a government in Austria after the 2024 elections, meaning that yet another European country could shift to the patriotic right. The popularity of the FPÖ can also be judged by their recent election results. Thus, during the regional elections in January 2023, the Freedom Party managed to finish second in the country’s largest province, Lower Austria, forcing the ÖVP to accept a coalition with them. A few weeks later, the FPÖ also won seats in the regional government of Salzburg, the richest province outside Vienna.
Besides the growing popularity of the FPÖ, another fact that worries Nehämmer and the ÖVP is that Austria, from one of the safest European countries, is starting to have more and more problems with the migrant waves that are flooding Europe. On November 2, 2020, Vienna, one of the safest capitals in the EU, experienced an unprecedented terrorist attack by a Macedonian citizen of Albanian origin, killing 4 people and injuring 23 others. At the beginning of October 2023, there were 4 people shot again in the center of the Austrian capital, and stabbings on the streets are becoming more and more.
Amidst this growing violence and shaky political situation, Karl Nehammer is looking for cheap political dividends by trying to block Bulgaria and Romania from Schengen. The compromise decisions for “Air Schengen” against bringing in “Austrian experts” to “teach” Bulgarian customs officers to guard their own border and Bulgaria’s acceptance of additional refugees is humiliating to say the least. No country that cares about its own sovereignty and international position in the EU would agree to such elementary blackmail. It is proper for the Austrian chancellor to solve his internal problems, and not to export them on the backs of third countries, trying to win the electorate.
The Bulgarian authorities must in no case agree to half-hearted proposals for Schengen, because a dangerous precedent can be created for the further European integration of Bulgaria and the rest of the Eastern European countries. Such scandalous proposals on the part of Austria once again testify to the desire of more and more Western European countries to treat the East as “second-hand member states” and to the idea of ”two-speed Europe”. If the EU wants to survive, this should not be allowed under any circumstances, because there are no eternal alliances, but there are eternal interests, and if the east does not become equal to the west, then the world is big and alternatives are lurking everywhere.
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