"Reverse gear"

EU election: Greens Schilling tears apart ÖVP program

Lena Schilling is the Greens' top candidate for the EU elections on June 9. The 23-year-old Viennese has gained notoriety in recent years as a climate activist.(Bild: APA/ROBERT JAEGER)

The EU election campaign is in full swing. On Monday, for example, the ÖVP presented its new posters and its program. The latter was sharply criticized by the Green top candidate Lena Schilling - as well as by the other political competitors. The Economic Association reacted promptly to Schilling's statements. 

"The ÖVP obviously doesn't care about climate and environmental protection," emphasized Schilling. And added: "What we need are ideas and concepts on how we can keep our environment and the nature around us healthy. The ÖVP prefers to go backwards. It wants to soften, water down or reverse the successes and milestones of the Green Deal."

EU nature conservation law, combustion engine
The ÖVP's abandonment of responsibility for the climate has become increasingly clear in recent weeks and months, Schilling recalled, for example, with regard to its stance on the EU Nature Conservation Act and the combustion engine issue. The aim of the EU Nature Conservation Act is to reforest forests, restore moors and strengthen biodiversity.

Schilling accuses ÖVP of "fake news campaign"
"The ÖVP, together with its European party family (EPP), has run a 'fake news campaign' against this, Donald Trump could take a leaf out of their book," criticized Schilling. She recalled that 3,000 scientists had taken a clear stance against the EPP's bogus arguments in an open letter and refuted them.

Wirtschaftsbund: Flotte Sprüche sichern keinen einzigen Arbeitsplatz
 The Wirtschaftsbund reacted promptly to Schilling's comments. "Snappy slogans do not secure a single job", it said in a press release. The Secretary General of the Austrian Economic Association, Kurt Egger, also underlined the importance of Europe's competitiveness. "Effective climate protection and social security are unthinkable without a strong European economy. We are committed to a policy that combines environmental protection with economic progress without jeopardizing our global competitive position."

SPÖ, FPÖ and NEOS also criticize ÖVP
However, the ÖVP also received criticism from the other parties. For example, the attempts by ÖVP top candidate Reinhold Lopatka to distance himself from the FPÖ were "implausible", said Klaus Seltenheim, Federal Secretary of the Red Party. He added: "The conservative forces in Austria and also in the European Parliament are increasingly making pacts with right-wing populist and extreme right-wing parties and making themselves stooges of these harmful policies." He emphasized that there can only be a strong and social Europe with the SPÖ.

Vilimsky: "ÖVP is the spearhead of those destroying Austria!"
 FPÖ top candidate Harald Vilimsky also had nothing good to say about the ÖVP. "The ÖVP's ploy to criticize in the EU election campaign what they themselves have actively worked on for years is transparent and will not work. The ÖVP is the spearhead of those who are destroying Austria," Vilimsky declared.

NEOS Secretary General Douglas Hoyos took the ÖVP's Europe program as an opportunity to expose "the complete implausibility and inconsistency of the People's Party's political statements on Europe". According to Hoyos, the ÖVP had long since "abandoned its pro-European course and lost its claim to be a European party".