"Right on Monday"

Greens want hearings for members of the government

(Bild: Reinhard Holl)

The fact that the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS want to introduce mandatory hearings for designated members of government before they are sworn in by the Federal President has now brought the Greens onto the scene.

In a letter to the three parliamentary groups, Sigrid Maurer, the executive leader of the Green Party, has called for this to begin on Monday. However, the chances of this happening are slim, as the future coalition parties believe that an amendment to the law is necessary first.

The "Constitution, human rights and administration" chapter of the government program presented on Thursday states on page 124: "Mandatory hearing of designated members of the federal government before the National Council, before the inauguration by the Federal President."

This has been read with interest and is proposed for March 3 (Monday, note), according to the letter to the party leaders August Wöginger (ÖVP), Philip Kucher (SPÖ) and Beate Meinl-Reisinger (NEOS).

Black-Red-Pink: legislative change necessary
The Greens have been calling for such mandatory hearings for some time, Maurer emphasized, making the commitment to them in the government programme all the more pleasing: "But lip service is not enough, we want to get down to business."

However, the future federal government had already waved goodbye to this on Thursday. The hearing proposal does not yet apply to the planned coalition, it was said. The relevant law would have to be amended first.