TIROLER TAGESZEITUNG, editorial: “What Austria should stand for”, by Alois Vahrner

2023-10-26 20:01:26

Issue from Friday, October 27, 2023

Innsbruck (OTS) – When, if not on the national holiday, should Austria’s role be discussed? The “perpetual neutrality” decided 68 years ago must be a mandate and not – as has all too often been the case up to now – just an excuse.

On October 26, 1955, the National Council passed Austria’s “perpetual neutrality” as a constitutional law. The Neutrality Act states: Austria has voluntarily declared its perpetual neutrality and will maintain it permanently.

After the war, Germany remained divided in two for decades, while the victorious powers USA, Soviet Union, Great Britain and France withdrew from Austria, which was once again fully sovereign. As a neutral country between the blocs, the Alpine republic then tried to build bridges between East and West with quite a bit of success – or, in the era of Bruno Kreisky, with mixed success in the powder keg of the Middle East that had recently exploded again.

The world has changed massively since then, Austria has been a member of the EU since 1995 – with all rights and obligations. The Iron Curtain may be gone, but there is a new bloc emerging between the democratic West on the one hand and China, Russia and other autocratic countries on the other. Since the Russian attack on Ukraine, war has been raging in Europe again. There is also an increasing number of conflicts around the world, and the hard-fought democratic freedoms are coming under pressure in many places.

What role should small Austria and its neutrality play, which, depending on the survey, a very large majority of 70 to 90 percent of the population absolutely wants to maintain? Experts see the role of bridge builder as long overestimated.

Others criticize Austria as a cherry picker. Being neutral does not mean being completely opinionless and lacking solidarity in international conflicts, as the FPÖ (it concluded a friendship agreement with Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party in 2016) would have you believe with regard to the Ukraine war. Finland and Sweden decided to join NATO because of Russian aggression; Switzerland has always spent at least twice as much on the military and thus on its own sovereignty. Austria, it has to be said so harshly, has destroyed its federal army under the ÖVP, SPÖ, FPÖ and now also the Greens and is content to be surrounded by NATO countries.

Is “wash my fur, but don’t get me wet” our motto? Mozartkugeln, Lipizzaner, operettas, a few skiing victories and a neutrality that is preached but hardly invested in are not enough. Especially since we also have room for improvement when it comes to development aid, there is a real credibility problem.