Vienna (OTS) – As several media report unanimously, ÖVP Minister of Agriculture Elisabeth Köstinger will announce her resignation at eleven o’clock. For FPÖ Secretary General NAbg. Michael Schnedlitz, this is the chance to finally make new elections possible: «In October of last year, the entire ÖVP government team pledged with their signature to resign if their messiah at the time, Sebastian Kurz, is no longer Chancellor. Austrians are still waiting for this promise to be kept today. Köstinger should take the other ministers with her right away and thus clear the way for new elections.»
Köstinger’s resignation represents the 13th (!) government reshuffle in less than two and a half years. «This government has shown us one thing so far: it can’t do it. It is unfit for the crisis,» says Schnedlitz, who can only speculate about the motives for Köstinger’s resignation: «Perhaps the minister senses that the thick end is yet to come in the area of food prices and food supply and therefore pulls the ripcord.»
The fact that two other ÖVP ministers are also more than ticked off shows how battered the federal government is. If one believes corresponding media reports, then ÖVP Minister of Economics Schramböck is still sitting in her chair only because the declared ideal candidate Martha Schultz does not want to become a minister. As for the new Minister of Education, Polaschek, it is said that he has not been in office long enough to be replaced.
FPÖ Secretary General Michael Schnedlitz calls for new elections, while Neos leader Meinl-Reisinger hopes for an «end to show politics.» Chancellor Karl Nehammer wants a successor «in the coming days.»
Following the announced resignation of ÖVP Agriculture Minister Elisabeth Köstinger, the opposition parties SPÖ and FPÖ have called for new elections. Turquoise-Green should clear the way for this, they said. Neos leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger, on the other hand, advocated a major government reshuffle.
«Köstinger should take the other ministers with her right away and thus clear the way for new elections,» Schnedlitz said in a statement. The Turquoise-Green coalition had shown that it could not govern and was «unfit for crisis». The deputy leader of the FPÖ, Dagmar Belakowitsch, expressed similar views at a press conference. From Köstinger remains that she let close the federal gardens in Vienna in the Corona time. She had done a lot of Vienna-bashing and «she made it very difficult for the population», left a «dead city tourism» and under her the food prices went through the roof – «she left chaos here».
Leichtfried: «Government is a haven of chaos»
SPÖ deputy club leader Jörg Leichtfried described the federal government as a «haven of chaos, instability, lack of plan and serious mistakes» – and this «in the middle of one of the most serious economic policy crises.» Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) and his deputy, Green Party leader Werner Kogler, should spare Austria months with a stumbling government and immediately clear the way for new elections, Leichtfried said. For SPÖ federal executive Christian Deutsch, too, Turquoise-Green is at an end.
An end to «show politics, which lacks so much in terms of seriousness and depth,» Meinl-Reisinger demanded in a press conference in view of the resignation: «I hope that it is a prelude to a major government reshuffle.» In particular, Meinl-Reisinger referred to Economics Minister Margarete Schramböck (ÖVP), who had been repeatedly called upon to resign by the Neos, in this context. From the Neos’ point of view, changes would also be appropriate with regard to departmental responsibilities.
Nehammer wants succession «in the coming days».
Chancellor Karl Nehammer wants to clarify the succession of the resigned Minister of Agriculture Elisabeth Köstinger (both ÖVP) in the «coming days», as he let know in a statement. Until then, Köstinger will remain in office, Nehammer said. Meanwhile, the opposition parties SPÖ and FPÖ called for new elections, Neos leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger demanded a major government reshuffle.
The outgoing Minister of Agriculture had informed him early Monday morning of her retirement from politics, the Chancellor said. He respected that wish, Nehammer said, calling Köstinger a «competent agricultural politician.» He called her resignation a «great loss.»
The opposition is different: «Köstinger should take the other ministers with her right away and thus clear the way for new elections,» Schnedlitz said in a statement. The Turkish-Green coalition had shown that it could not govern and was «unfit for crisis». The deputy leader of the FPÖ, Dagmar Belakowitsch, expressed similar views at a press conference.
On the other hand, Meinl-Reisinger called for an end to «show politics, which lacks so much in terms of seriousness and depth» at a press conference in view of the resignation: «I hope that it is a prelude to a major government reshuffle.» In particular, Meinl-Reisinger referred to Economics Minister Margarete Schramböck (ÖVP), who had been repeatedly called upon to resign by the Neos, in this context. From the Neos’ point of view, changes in departmental responsibilities would also be appropriate.
The coalition partner presented roses as a farewell gift: he had come to know Köstinger in the last two and a half years of cooperation in the federal government as a «tough, competent negotiator and a real fighter», said Vice-Chancellor Kogler. She has been a «strong and important voice for fair prices for farmers,» he stressed.
And former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) also thanked Köstinger for the «time together in politics». Kurz wished his former companion «all the best» for her «new chapter» and the road ahead.
