Laughter in parliament
This is why Kogler and Meinl-Reisinger are “separated”
The swearing-in of the 183 members of parliament kicked off the constituent session of the National Council on Thursday afternoon. The new seating arrangement in the front row, which consists of 16 (instead of the previous 17) seats, was striking. There is a large gap between NEOS leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger and Green Party leader Werner Kogler. The pink leader explained the "separation" in her speech, which caused a lot of laughter.
There had already been a dispute about the new seating arrangements in parliament the previous week. NEOS and the Greens announced that they no longer wanted to sit next to each other in the front row. Previously, there were 17 seats in the front row. The ÖVP had occupied seven of them, the SPÖ four, the FPÖ three, the Greens two and the NEOS one.
But it's quite nice, Werner. We can do it in our individual seats up there.
NEOS-Chefin Beate Meinl-Reisinger
Now the distribution looks like this: 5 FPÖ, 5 ÖVP, 4 SPÖ, 1 Grüne and 1 NEOS - and instead of the 17th seat, there is a larger gap between Meinl-Reisinger and Kogler, which makes a clear separation visible.
"The idea here is always that the parliamentary groups should sit as separately as possible. That is the reason and not because Werner Kogler and I were somehow bad pupils that we are sitting here so individually in the front row," explained Meinl-Reisinger in her speech.
She then addressed Kogler directly from the lectern: "But it's quite nice, Werner. We can do it in our individual seats up there!"
Green flowerpot for pink boss
Kogler then got up from his seat, picked up his little green flower pot (which all the Green Party mandataries had with them) and placed it in Meinl-Reisinger's seat. Probably a sign that the two get on well. The MPs acknowledged this with a deep sigh and applause.
FPÖ now on the far right in the National Council
In the last presidential debate chaired by Wolfgang Sobotka, all parliamentary groups - with the exception of the Freedom Party - spoke out in favor of the new seating arrangement. However, the FPÖ, which had won numerous additional seats, initially did not want to swap places with the ÖVP and move to the far right from the lectern.
But they had to grudgingly accept this. Incidentally, everything remains the same for the other clubs. The SPÖ sits on the far left, with the Greens and NEOS next to it.
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