The lockdown for unvaccinated people did not have to have happened if Stelzer and Haberlander had reacted earlier and not let the reins slide in summer and autumn, according to a main allegation by the SPÖ, the Greens and NEOS. There were enough warnings, only that Stelzer did not want to impose any unpopular measures during the election campaign.
Governor Thomas Stelzer rejects the criticism that he reacted too late to the worsening of the corona situation out of consideration for the election campaign. He said on the television program “Upper Austria Today” on Friday that some people obviously needed someone who could be held responsible for the corona pandemic.
Stelzer to lockdown for unvaccinated people
Upper Austria’s governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP) comments on the new measures in Upper Austria. He evades criticism of his previous decisions.
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Main responsibility for the population and the country
“My main responsibility is to protect the population and shape the country. And I deal with that every hour and I also make sure that we make the best decisions with the knowledge that we have on a daily basis in order to move forward ”. Stelzer also admits mistakes that happened in such an exceptional situation, “but we always try very quickly and precisely to ensure the maximum protection of our compatriots”.
Media comments also criticize federal politics
The daily newspapers and their commentators saw the print editions a little differently on Saturday, but also include federal politics in their criticism.
For example, Wolfgang Braun says in the Oberösterreichische Nachrichten: “The past few weeks have been marked by calamations and an almost irritating ignorance of any need for anticipatory crisis management. And all against better judgment. If Federal Chancellor Schallenberg and Governor Stelzer justify themselves by saying that no expert had predicted the current escalation, then this is an attempt to escape. Because of course there have been warnings of a fourth wave, especially when the vaccination rate is so low ”.
In the Kronenzeitung, Klaus Herrman generally criticizes the failures and disappointments of politics at all levels this week. And then he writes literally: “Now it’s time for politicians and the population in good Austrian terms: Get going! Otherwise we will never manage to leave this wretched pandemic behind us ”.
Criticism oö. Volksblatt
And in the Upper Austrian Volksblatt of the ÖVP, Christian Haubner says: “The corona numbers and the situation in the hospitals make the new measures necessary. Setting these and adapting them at short notice is a sign of political responsibility. When the leaders of the SPÖ, the Greens and NEOS assign blame and criticize those who try to protect people’s health in a volatile situation, then that is hardly understandable ”.
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