Tiroler Tageszeitung, leading article from May 27, 2023. By Michael Sprenger: "A mess".

2023-05-26 20:00:35

Innsbruck (OTS) – With Salzburg, the third federal state is now colored black and blue. Herbert Kickl rejoices. He sees himself getting closer and closer to the chancellor’s office. At the same time, the ÖVP launched an attack on the FPÖ. It smells like an election campaign.

The Salzburg ÖVP boss Wilfried Haslauer did it after all. During the election campaign he sharply criticized the tonality of the FPÖ. It was reminiscent of the 1920s. His opponent Marlene Svazek called the comparison “grotesque and outrageous”. It doesn’t matter. Everything is different now. Haslauer twisted his head and Swazek laughed when he announced the coalition agreement. Finally, respectful interaction was stipulated in the preamble – and tolerance. Well then. After Upper Austria and Lower Austria, black and blue now also rule in Salzburg. A happy day for the FPÖ leader. Herbert Kickl sees himself getting even closer to the chancellery.
Now, of all times, the federal ÖVP is beginning to half-heartedly attack the FPÖ. Its general secretary, Christian Stocker, went out to outlaw the FPÖ as a “corruption party”. You can do this when investigations are being carried out against former ministers, against the ex-chancellor and even against your own party for corruption.
What is Stocker aiming for if he also welcomes cooperation between the ÖVP and the FPÖ in the federal states and does not rule out a coalition with the Blues at federal level? Sebastian Kurz copied the program of the FPÖ in the 2017 election campaign. shameless? Perhaps for those in the ÖVP who have recognized a betrayal of Christian Democratic values. But Kurz conquered the chancellorship. So everything done right. The content of the Ibiza video then ensured that the migration of voters from the FPÖ to the ÖVP could really begin.
Stocker knows: The ÖVP cannot repeat that. The chancellor’s party is trying to move far to the right again. But the once disappointed Strache voters have long since found a – sometimes temporary – home with Kickl’s FPÖ. So the ÖVP is now attacking Kickl head-on, wanting to achieve some kind of damage limitation with a view to the not yet fixed election day. But a clear no to a blue coalition partner does not come from her lips. It can hardly be more deceitful.
Because just as Kickl is satisfied with the Salzburg Pact, so is ÖVP Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler. She even sees the “constructive forces in the FPÖ” at work there. Really?
Domestic policy has long been in a “muddle” to borrow from Friedrich Dürrenmatt. In his last novel, the important Swiss writer practiced grotesque exaggeration. With sarcasm you can definitely protect yourself from this political goings-on at Pentecost. If it weren’t so bitter.