State of Emergency in Vienna
Normally, governing parties strive to create the impression before an election that everything is fine. They want to say that they have done a decent job and ask to be reaffirmed. It would be an exaggeration to suggest that SPÖ and Neos are not doing this at all in view of the Vienna municipal council election in two weeks. However, it is almost unbelievable how much they unintentionally express the opposite; that in the federal capital, conditions are so catastrophic that a state of emergency must be declared.
Yes, that is exactly what they are doing by agreeing to the halt of family reunification at the federal level. This halt cannot simply be decided. It must be justified. Namely, by stating that public safety and order can no longer be guaranteed.
Is that really the case? It is undisputed that in recent years too many children without German language skills have come to schools, making it impossible to teach them even the basics, partly because there are simply too few teachers for this. On the one hand, the influx has significantly decreased, and on the other hand, Vienna still functions better overall than most major cities in Europe. In this respect, there is no state of emergency.
But SPÖ and Neos, as coalition partners of the ÖVP at the federal level, have allowed themselves to be put in an awkward position: They know that many people want at least a brake on immigration. So they participate in the halt of family reunification for those entitled to asylum. Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) explicitly welcomes it. Neos state spokesperson Christoph Wiederkehr, the previous deputy mayor and now education minister, supports it as a member of the federal government anyway.
They accept the claimed state of emergency. An own goal that is also dangerous: They indirectly confirm the Freedom Party, which locates so much insecurity in Vienna that they once demanded soldiers to march; and they confirm the turquoise People's Party, which speaks of a knife metropolis.
Such election campaign help for the biggest opponents has rarely been seen. And when it comes to opponents: One of the biggest criticisms of Social Democrats and Neos against FPÖ leader Hebert Kick is that he declared an "asylum emergency" to support his demand to no longer accept any refugees; yes, that it would be part of a policy to always talk about an emergency to do whatever he pleases.
This has also upset the Reds and Pinks in the past. But now they are breaking the taboo and starting with an emergency policy themselves. Kickl will be pleased: Should he ever become chancellor and do that, they can no longer say anything.
Johannes Huber runs the blog dieSubstanz.at – Analyses and Backgrounds on Politics
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.