"Krone" guest commentary

Shield citizen prank

Christian Baha is a stock market expert and founded Austria's first stock exchange terminal in 1993, which delivers data in real time. In 1996, he established the world's first hedge fund for private investors. Baha has always pursued the vision of making funds for wealthy individuals accessible to smaller investors.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

Stories about the Shield Citizens were first published in 1598. This was a fictitious group of inhabitants of the town of Schilda who attracted attention by building a town hall without windows and then later trying to bring in sunlight with buckets. Somehow this reminds me of the Sky Shield initiative, in which Austria and Switzerland are to participate alongside 20 European NATO states. Both here and in Switzerland, there has been massive criticism of the question of whether Sky Shield is compatible with neutrality.

The statement from the German Ministry of Defense confirms the concerns: the aim is to strengthen the European pillar of NATO. The intention is to integrate Sky Shield into the air defense of the NATO area managed by the NATO Commander for Europe. In plain language: in an emergency, it is not Austria but the NATO command structure that decides on the deployment of these systems. In addition, joint military exercises are planned in which Austrian soldiers would be deployed side by side with the Turkish military, among others.

While countries such as France, Italy, Spain and Portugal reject Sky Shield, Austria is to pay six to seven billion euros. In acquisition costs alone. For an air defense system that blows up our neutrality?

In fact, there is only one question: who can take responsibility for this Shield citizen prank?