"Krone" Editorial

ÖVP Crumbles Under the Drought—Will the Coalition Soon Follow?

Christian Stocker must hold the coalition together amid the conflict—and right now, he isn’t even managing to do that with his own party.(Bild: APA/FLORIAN WIESER)

The heat, the aridity, and the drought of this summer are quite obviously causing the governing coalition to dry up as well. After weeks of fruitless discussions about drought aid for farmers and the pending climate bill, observers— but above all to those directly involved, a picture that is anything but a blooming meadow—instead, only a parched field with deep cracks, a dry plot of land that is increasingly turning into a battlefield within the coalition.

Would you rather have a blue “Bed in the Cornfield”?
The Greens, Turquoises, Reds, and Pinks were never on the same page from the start. On one side is the ÖVP, with its Christian-social roots, whose voter base is increasingly drifting toward the FPÖ, and where influential figures—especially from business and industry—would much rather find their “bed in the cornfield” with the Blues. On the other side is the SPÖ under deep-red—some would say fundamentalist—leadership. And then there are the liberal NEOS, who, in the face of internal strife, are themselves in danger of withering away.

Much has already gone wrong for the coalition this summer, such as the last-minute, half-baked compromise on the issue of extending military service.

Commentary on the major issues affecting Austria: Klaus Herrmann, Editor-in-Chief(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Imre Antal, stock.adobe.com)

But the drought aid is now threatening to tear the chancellor’s party apart in particular: Farmers—the core constituency of the Turquoise-Black coalition, but who have long since defected en masse to the Blues at the polls—urgently need support after the hottest and driest summer on record. The SPÖ and NEOS are now making their approval of drought aid contingent on an agreement on the climate protection law, which has been pending for years.

The ÖVP is completely overwhelmed—and what is the chancellor doing?
But on this issue, the ÖVP is crumbling: Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig, a member of the Farmers’ Union who has also been given the Climate and Environment Ministry, seems completely overwhelmed—especially since the Economic Federation, the other powerful affiliate within the People’s Party, is itself blocking even a climate bill that has already been watered down several times.

The Federal Chancellor and party chairman is called upon to act. If he fails to bring his party to a compromise that is also acceptable to the SPÖ and NEOS—then the drought and climate issue threatens to crumble not only the ÖVP. Then the three-party coalition—which never really flourished to begin with—will finally wither away.

What will grow then? A sudden shift of parts of the ÖVP toward a coalition with the FPÖ, along with imminent new elections—that need no longer be a mirage on the shimmering horizon.