The ÖVP has rediscovered its proximity to the FPÖ. Does something grow together here that doesn’t quite belong together, but always finds its way back together?
Once again, everything comes together in the most wondrous way. On Friday the week before last, Chancellor Karl Nehammer – in his capacity as ÖVP chairman, mind you – presented the visions he wants to realize by 2030 in a keynote speech. To a large extent, it was a question of visions that, as far as is humanly possible, he will not be able to implement either with his current coalition partner, the Greens, or with the SPÖ.
But behold: Just a week later, namely last Friday, a number of the points that are important to Nehammer were found again in St. Pölten. Namely in the government program that the Lower Austrian governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner decided with her new liberal partner Udo Landbauer. Or in the public statement with which the two founded their partnership. A song of praise for the commuters. Yes to the combustion engine. A commitment to ownership. Benefits in kind instead of cash for migrants. Politics “for those who get up in the morning and go to work.” These points, and a few more, read like a counter-program to what the Turquoises and Greens agreed three years ago at the federal level. In the new black-blue rapprochement that happened in St. Pölten, things that don’t quite belong together may grow together, but which could also blossom into a new partnership on another level (in Salzburg? In the federal government?).
No, there is no master plan behind all this. The deep dislike in which Johanna Mikl-Leitner and Udo Landbauer are connected would never have allowed such a thing. Probably never before in the history of coalition negotiations has a head of government announced the successful conclusion of the talks with such a convincingly rendered mournful expression as Mikl-Leitner, who had been insulted by Landbauer in the most improper way during the election campaign. Not a trace of joy or a spirit of optimism. One was reminded of the then Federal President Thomas Klestil, who once had to accept the FPÖ as a government partner of the ÖVP with a similar facial expression. Master plans look different. If the bold Herr Hergovich from the state SPÖ hadn’t willfully blown up the negotiations with the ÖVP, the Lower Austrian SPÖ would be sitting at the coalition table today and not Udo Landbauer, for whom there is nothing to indicate that he will be able to cope with his new office.
In any case, with the passive help of the SPÖ, a taboo was broken on Friday in St. Pölten. Namely the one that says that you cannot form a coalition with the Kickl-FPÖ. It’s over! If, see Lower Austria, you can form a coalition with the Landbauer-FPÖ, you can still do it with the Kickl-FPÖ. It was also strikingly demonstrated that oaths made before elections are afterwards not even worth the paper of the party bulletin they were printed on. Mikl-Leitner and Landbauer had excluded each other as partners in the election campaign, now they are. Whether it will benefit the country remains to be seen, but a look at the government agreement gives no cause for excessive optimism. The fact that the first chapter is dedicated to a hateful review of the allegedly failed corona policy is a mockery of the voters, who probably have more important concerns at the moment. The fact that corona vaccinations are no longer allowed to be advertised in Lower Austria is a mockery of science, reminiscent of pre-enlightenment times, to which mankind owes this useful vaccination. And the fact that a fund worth millions is being set up for those who had to pay a fine for not adhering to the Corona regulations is a mockery of those who have suffered from the health or economic consequences of the pandemic. Hopefully the ÖVP will know how to sell this swaggering nonsense to their voters.
The fact remains that the ÖVP, which has moved to the right with Nehammer’s speech, is losing its coalition partner left of center. The fact remains that the Kickl-FPÖ is currently leading in all polls, may win the next national elections and claim the chancellor’s chair. The fact remains that the ÖVP and FPÖ have a lot in common, see Corona, but also a lot in common, see Nehammer’s recent speech and its reflection in the Lower Austrian government program. The SPÖ can confidently devote the coming weeks to their self-reflection on a side stage. The music is currently playing elsewhere.