If the whole of Austria were as exemplary as Mistelbach in terms of vaccination standards, compulsory vaccination would not be necessary. 90 percent of adults in the Weinviertel district have been vaccinated at least once – that’s great. Austria-wide the average is 82 percent. The government’s goal to get the pandemic under control and to avoid further lockdowns is 90 percent of those who have been vaccinated three times. In order to achieve this goal, the general obligation to vaccinate will come into force on February 1st.
The law will be passed in parliament on Thursday. In addition to the governing parties ÖVP and Greens, the MPs from SPÖ and NEOS will ensure a broad majority. Only the FPÖ is still strictly against it.
Indra Collini
Photo:
Erich Marschik
The party leaders in Lower Austria see this differently. While the ÖVP, Greens and SPÖ represent the line of their federal party, NEOS state leader Indra Collini speaks out against compulsory vaccination. “But I support the vaccination itself,” says Collini, who fears that the duty will further divide society.
SPÖ-NÖ boss Franz Schnabl is not 100 percent happy with the compulsory vaccination either. It only became necessary because of the “disastrous crisis management of the federal government”, he says. But the state deputy sees the evaluation of the original draft as positive.
Exceptions are not determined by the family doctor
Franz Schnabl
Photo:
SPNOE
Not only that vaccination is only compulsory from the age of 18. Above all, the SPÖ welcomes the planned ongoing review of the constitutionality and the adjustment of the penalties to the income situation. Before the conclusion of the negotiation (after the copy deadline), the SPÖ called for an incentive system and that 3G must continue to apply in the workplace. What is also new is that the exceptions can only be determined by official or epidemic doctors, but not by general practitioners.
The chamber of commerce within the chancellor’s party ÖVP was skeptical. But the President of the WKNÖ, Wolfgang Ecker, is satisfied with the “careful implementation” of the law: “The presented schedule makes the implementation more practicable for our companies and ensures the urgently needed planning.”
Wolfgang Ecker
Photo:
Gerald Lechner
For Lower Austria’s governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP), vaccination is the “best way to protect people from serious illnesses” anyway.
Johanna Mikl Leitner
Photo:
WHAT/GEORG HOCHMUTH
The Lower Austrian Greens welcome the fact that vaccination is being implemented and that there is a broad parliamentary consensus across party lines, in which “numerous statements and viewpoints, including those from parties outside the governing coalition in the federal government, have been taken into account and incorporated,” said spokeswoman Helga Krismer.
Helga Krismer
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The Greens of Lower Austria
The Lower Austrian Greens did not share the concerns of ex-Greens leader Madeleine Petrovic, who sees the law as unconstitutional.
The FPÖ continues to act with full force against the law. State party leader Udo Landbauer sees an “unprecedented attack on the fundamental rights of our compatriots that were previously guaranteed by the constitution”. The FPÖ wanted to “challenge this unjust regime by all means”.
Udo Landbauer
Photo:
FPÖ Lower Austria
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