FPÖ – Steger: “Review of four years of the Green Sports Minister – four years of inaction, disinterest and intentional ruin of sport”

2023-12-13 19:10:08

Vienna (OTS) – In her contribution to the debate on the report on the nationwide funding measures in elite, popular and youth sports in 2022 (Sports Report 2022), the liberal sports spokeswoman NAbg analyzed. Petra Steger describes the shocking results of the Green Sports Minister Vice Chancellor Kogler, which is characterized by “inaction, disinterest and the deliberate ruination of sport” in Austria: “The sports report is important and sport in Austria more than deserves to be properly treated here in Parliament to be appreciated. What sport doesn’t deserve, however, is this sports minister, whose only achievement is inaction. Where is the reform of the federal sports funding structure that Kogler always called for years ago on the opposition bench? Where is the announced professional sports law reform that he wrote into his government program and has still not delivered for four years? Where is the real support for volunteer work? The clubs are suffering from a massive loss of officials. Fewer and fewer want to volunteer and the deductibility of donations, which is to be decided tomorrow, doesn’t help either – by the way, a long-standing FPÖ demand that has always been postponed and put aside by the ÖVP, the Greens and the SPÖ. The ÖVP and the Greens are now realizing too late that these measures make sense and are necessary. But as always, it’s too late and the damage that Sports Minister Kogler has caused so far during his time in office cannot be repaired even by this small positive measure. Kogler has caused lasting damage to volunteerism in the sports sector. This is his only success as sports minister!”

Steger continued: “Four years of sports minister Kogler, four years of sports department in green hands and the only thing that Kogler can boast of in sports is a catastrophic balance sheet including massive damage that the next generations and governments will have to deal with. Four years without a single reform – four years in which Kogler did not bring sport through, but rather brought crises into sport.” Above all, Kogler’s Corona measures caused massive, lasting damage to children and young people: “Due to the irresponsible Corona -Lockdown policy of the ÖVP and the Greens with the help of SPÖ and NEOS, where healthy people were banned from sport and exercise and especially children were locked up at home for months, where halls and sports facilities were closed, where an entire generation was weaned off sport, has caused massive collateral damage.” The consequences are massive and would manifest themselves in an enormous lack of exercise: 80 percent of children and young people do not exercise enough. One in 10 children in this country can no longer swim. This is frightening because drowning is now the number two cause of death among children. The ÖVP and the Greens are to blame for the fact that millions of swimming lessons have been lost. But instead of making amends for its own mistakes and doing everything it can to promote swimming and rebuild the swimming infrastructure, this government is doing everything it can to make the situation even worse – keywords are enormous energy costs and record inflation.”

“It was only in the last sports committee that the FPÖ submitted a proposal to introduce nationwide free swimming courses. But this was postponed and thus shelved due to its lack of importance for the government and especially the Sports Minister Kogler. The ÖVP and the Greens are just as uninterested in sport as they are in the related health of our children and young people. Because why else are the ÖVP and the Greens postponing our application for the nationwide expansion of daily gymnastics lessons? Something that all parties have supposedly wanted and demanded for years. Everyone now knows that every euro invested in sport returns 14-fold. Economically, sport brings significantly more savings than it costs.

For years, the federal government has been watching as the health of children and young people steadily declines and mental health problems such as these steadily increase. There is money for everything in this country, but not for measures such as daily gymnastics lessons or nationwide swimming courses, said Steger: “ÖVP and the Greens are running up billions in debt, throwing the money out the window – COFAG, mass migration, EU, Ukraine. Yes, this government can do that. Redistribute money away from Austrians and abroad. However, they are not prepared to spend more money on the health of the youngest people in this country. That’s a shame!”

“For years, Sports Minister Kogler has been idly watching sport, just as he is now idly watching. An example of this is how sport is abused and exploited by climate extremists for their propaganda – as was recently the case with the slalom in Obergurgl, a ‘green sport event’ that was actually funded. There, the ORF, which was financed with compulsory fees, offered these climate extremists a stage. Yet another reason why this compulsory fee introduced by the ÖVP and the Greens will be the first thing to be reversed with a People’s Chancellor. We promise this to all Austrians!” said Steger in conclusion.