"Krone" commentary

Anti-Kickl coalition

Analyzed for the "Krone": Andreas Mölzer(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

Peter Kaiser, who has matured from the once very left-wing JUSO to the serene father of Carinthia, has recently pleaded for a new edition of the old red-black or black-red coalition, which was once the "grand coalition". To the applause of his Viennese counterpart Michael Ludwig, he explained that we should remember what this former grand coalition had achieved for the country: It stood for the reconstruction after the war and for the prosperous development of the Second Republic.

ON THE ONE HAND, it is undeniable that this form of specifically Austrian consensus democracy was able to ensure social peace over long periods through the cooperation of the two former major parties ÖVP and SPÖ by means of social partnership and red-black proportional representation.

ON THE OTHER hand, the undesirable developments and excesses of the former grand coalition cannot be forgotten - just because the aim today is apparently to prevent the Kickl-FPÖ from joining the government. The political climate at the end of red-black coalition governments was characterized by party book economy and a backlog of reforms, mutual blockades and aversion to the point of hatred.

And this time, too, it would certainly only be a common enemy - which one? - and not a common reform program that would unite black and red. What's more, Kaiser and Ludwig seem to have overlooked the fact that, according to the polls, an ÖVP-SPÖ coalition is no longer an option.