The water levels are slowly falling – and political tension is rising. In one week there will be elections in Austria.
Author: Peter Voegeli
20.09.2024, 07:39
Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer has promised the help that is sensible and expected. The so-called disaster fund will be more than doubled – to one billion euros, he announced.
Costs for damage and repairs can be deducted from taxes, tax payments can be deferred, and disaster-related short-time work can be introduced. Guarantees and loans of over 100 million euros can also be used to make replacement investments, for example for damaged machinery.
Caption: Karl Nehammer of the ÖVP (centre) would like to remain chancellor – but he is being challenged by Herbert Kickl (right) and his right-wing populist FPÖ, which could become the strongest party. Meanwhile, Green Party leader Werner Kogler (left) will probably have to accept that he will no longer be in government after the election on September 29. Keystone/Roland Schlager
These are the usual and sensible instruments. Financially, it can be managed. But in the medium term, the flood disaster will damage the Austrian economy, which has been in recession for the second year in a row.
Nehammer’s ÖVP reduces the gap
Environmental disasters usually “benefit” incumbent governments because they can take action. In the opinion polls, the ÖVP has been able to slightly reduce the gap between itself and the FPÖ. Until now, the right-wing populists had looked like the sure winners.
FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl is therefore in the role of a football team captain who has to avoid conceding a last-minute equalizer. He cannot win in this situation, he can only try not to lose too much of his lead.
And so Kickl demanded in parliament that those affected should have a legal right to compensation instead of having to ask for help. In conjunction with this demand, Kickl also tried to use rhetoric to turn the FPÖ’s side of the argument.
“In emergency situations, Austria has to be there for its people,” he said. And immediately asked whether the money would not be “better off in Austria than in Ukraine.”
Greens likely to lose despite flood
After the floods, climate protection has increasingly become the focus of the election campaign. Because this is not a topic close to the heart of the ÖVP, Chancellor Nehammer announced above all that flood protection would be expanded. He did not even want to mention the word climate change. Instead, he spoke of “phenomena” that require flood protection to be improved.
In contrast, Nehammer’s coalition partner and Vice Chancellor, the Green Party’s Werner Kogler, tried to score points with the issue: “That is precisely the nature of the climate crisis,” he stressed in parliament. But despite the flood disaster, the climate has not become a dominant theme in the election campaign.
The Greens will probably lose and will probably not be represented in the next government. The gap between the FPÖ, which has been in the lead for months, and the ÖVP has narrowed slightly. Kickl’s right-wing populists are still in the lead, but their lead has become quite small at just over two percent.
