Tender ties

Are the political winds changing now?

(Bild: Krone Kreativ)

It wasn't a love match - until now, the ÖVP and FPÖ worked together professionally in the provincial government, but now the sparks are flying. And the SPÖ? They are suddenly praising the People's Party ... 

A delicate bond of rapprochement? For the first time in a long time, SPÖ politicians are praising an ÖVP initiative. (Still) SPÖ state councillor Sven Hergovich comments on the initiative that parents who stay with their children in hospital will have to pay less in future as a "first good step". And this in the area of healthcare - until now the absolute bone of contention between the People's Party and the Social Democrats. Is this already a first taste of the new situation in the federal government? Hergovich is, as the "Krone" reports, a promising candidate for minister.

At the same time, the hitherto unblemished façade of black-blue cooperation in the country is crumbling. After FPÖ grandee Alexander Murlasits called the mayor a "fire accelerator and democracy denier", ÖVP politicians are firing back. "As the People's Party of Lower Austria, we will not allow the work of our mayors to be denigrated - not even by our government partner!", explains Matthias Zauner, Managing Director of the state government. But Murlasits is adamant: "There were mayors who were not on the side of the population during the coronavirus period." Zauner's counter: "The FPÖ in particular, which now sits in four provincial governments and is therefore - as it describes it - part of the complacent caste of politicians, is no longer buying the smear of an anti-establishment movement."

And there is also a row about the minefield of the provincial health agency: Black politicians see the "The cross must remain in the hospitals!" demand by FPÖ mandatary Hubert Keyl as a foul - because nothing else was ever planned.

The new approach naturally has to do with the municipal elections on January 26, 2025. Will the political wind change by then?