Austrian Elections & Politics 5.0 (Burgenland state election - January 26)

[Tender Branson]

ÖVP and Greens are still working out the last details of their new coalition today and tomorrow, before presenting it to the public on Thursday.

https://www.oe24.at/oesterreich/politik/Tuerkis-Gruen-11-Regierungsmitglieder-fuer-OeVP-4-fuer-Gruene/411413673

Ö24 and other media are reporting now that the ÖVP will get 11 ministers (incl. Kurz as Chancellor) and the Greens 4 (incl. Kogler as Vice-Chancellor).

Both parties will nominate an additional State Secretary, so the new cabinet will have 17 members (5 more than the current technocratic interim government, but almost unchanged in size from the ÖVP-FPÖ government).

The coalition contract will likely have around 200 pages and is finalized these days.

Major agreements apparently include a tax cut, but with a balanced budget for the next years. A carbon tax will be introduced to reduce the emission output, but there will be much more investment into public transportation in urban/suburban areas and rail infrastructure. Reducing child poverty by a lot is another major goal and better integration of foreigners. The Greens were also victorious on full transparency for party finances, where the court of audit will now get proper insight like the FEC in the US. On the other hand, the Greens OKd the ÖVPs hardline on immigration.

[Tender Branson]

Another ÖVP-Green cabinet member just got confirmed:

It also means that the ÖVP government team will be majority-female (6 of 11) and because the Greens have a majority-female government party statute, it also means that 3 of the 4 Green members will be female. That's 9 of 15 for the whole government. Even if the 2 additional state secretaries are male, it's still 9-8 female.

https://www.krone.at/2070297

[Tender Branson]

A fact seems to have drowned in the media:

There's still the Social Ministry (or used to be) and Rudi Anschober or Astrid Rössler were mentioned as ministers for this department for the Greens.

Now there is some uncertainty if the Ministry will continue to exist at all, or if Aschbacher will take it over ("Labour" has always been at the Social Ministry before).

If the Social Ministry continues to be its own department, then we probably have 16 ministries, not just 15 as the media said.

[Tender Branson]

Alma Zadic, born in Tuzla (Bosnia), will become the new Minister for Justice.


Source: Wikipedia

This was confirmed by the Greens today.

She will become the first minister of Balkan origin.

The FPÖ is already going nuts, calling her a "Muslim", "a convicted criminal" and several vulgar terms.

https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000112802978/rassistischer-hass-gegen-gruene-zadic-nach-posting-von-fpoe-politiker

It's not even clear if she's a Muslim, nor does it matter.

[rob in cal]

  Tender, what is the perception of the new interior minister, Karl Nehammer? 
   Also, if in fact the new coalition continues, more or less, the previous immigration policies of the OVP FPO government, that shows quite a bit of ideological flexibility on the part of the Greens, and quite a bit of pragmatism, in that they show that as long as they get some serious gains on the environment, they can give up ground on their pro-multicultural, pro more immigration policies.
   I think long term that would be a good model for other Green parties in Europe to look toward.

[Tender Branson]

  Tender, what is the perception of the new interior minister, Karl Nehammer? 
   Also, if in fact the new coalition continues, more or less, the previous immigration policies of the OVP FPO government, that shows quite a bit of ideological flexibility on the part of the Greens, and quite a bit of pragmatism, in that they show that as long as they get some serious gains on the environment, they can give up ground on their pro-multicultural, pro more immigration policies.
   I think long term that would be a good model for other Green parties in Europe to look toward.

Karl Nehammer is the typical party soldier and a close associate of Kurz.

He served in the military voluntarily for a few years and is considered a hardliner on immigration.

Yeah, the Greens definitely were OK with the strict immigration course of Kurz, which is a good thing. The worst thing we'd need is the Greens dictating things on immigration.

[Tender Branson]

The concluding talks of ÖVP-Greens are planned for the afternoon (maybe a few last negotiations about the 2 state secretaries and the Foreign Minister).

Maybe the Foreign Ministry will be awarded to the Greens at the last moment, but who knows ?

Kurz and Kogler will hold a press statement today at around 8-9pm primetime, to announce the successful conclusion of coalition talks.

They will present their government and their deal tomorrow.

[crals]

  Tender, what is the perception of the new interior minister, Karl Nehammer? 
   Also, if in fact the new coalition continues, more or less, the previous immigration policies of the OVP FPO government, that shows quite a bit of ideological flexibility on the part of the Greens, and quite a bit of pragmatism, in that they show that as long as they get some serious gains on the environment, they can give up ground on their pro-multicultural, pro more immigration policies.
   I think long term that would be a good model for other Green parties in Europe to look toward.

Yes, I'm glad they decided not to die on that hill and focus on their environmental priorities. Being kicked out of the parliament seems to have done the Austrian Greens a world of good.

[Oryxslayer]

  Tender, what is the perception of the new interior minister, Karl Nehammer? 
   Also, if in fact the new coalition continues, more or less, the previous immigration policies of the OVP FPO government, that shows quite a bit of ideological flexibility on the part of the Greens, and quite a bit of pragmatism, in that they show that as long as they get some serious gains on the environment, they can give up ground on their pro-multicultural, pro more immigration policies.
   I think long term that would be a good model for other Green parties in Europe to look toward.

Yes, I'm glad they decided not to die on that hill and focus on their environmental priorities. Being kicked out of the parliament seems to have done the Austrian Greens a world of good.

Yes, it seem obvious in hindsight that there needed to be give-and-take between the two parties, and this is one of those areas. Maintaining the OVP's immigration policies is something that the Greens would be more eager to push back on, if they were not negotiating for a govt with approximately 2 OVP minister for 1 Green. So, it appears they traded this plank away for more  aggressive climate policies like the Carbon Tax. The trade also is less painful than say the Lib-Dems action on tuition fees since they are getting this new 'Integration' ministry, which gives  the Greens a bit of a voice in this general policy track

[Tender Branson]

  Tender, what is the perception of the new interior minister, Karl Nehammer? 
   Also, if in fact the new coalition continues, more or less, the previous immigration policies of the OVP FPO government, that shows quite a bit of ideological flexibility on the part of the Greens, and quite a bit of pragmatism, in that they show that as long as they get some serious gains on the environment, they can give up ground on their pro-multicultural, pro more immigration policies.
   I think long term that would be a good model for other Green parties in Europe to look toward.

Yes, I'm glad they decided not to die on that hill and focus on their environmental priorities. Being kicked out of the parliament seems to have done the Austrian Greens a world of good.

Yes, it seem obvious in hindsight that there needed to be give-and-take between the two parties, and this is one of those areas. Maintaining the OVP's immigration policies is something that the Greens would be more eager to push back on, if they were not negotiating for a govt with approximately 2 OVP minister for 1 Green. So, it appears they traded this plank away for more  aggressive climate policies like the Carbon Tax. The trade also is less painful than say the Lib-Dems action on tuition fees since they are getting this new 'Integration' ministry, which gives  the Greens a bit of a voice in this general policy track

The new Integration Ministry will be ÖVP-Held though, not Green.

[Oryxslayer]

  Tender, what is the perception of the new interior minister, Karl Nehammer? 
   Also, if in fact the new coalition continues, more or less, the previous immigration policies of the OVP FPO government, that shows quite a bit of ideological flexibility on the part of the Greens, and quite a bit of pragmatism, in that they show that as long as they get some serious gains on the environment, they can give up ground on their pro-multicultural, pro more immigration policies.
   I think long term that would be a good model for other Green parties in Europe to look toward.

Yes, I'm glad they decided not to die on that hill and focus on their environmental priorities. Being kicked out of the parliament seems to have done the Austrian Greens a world of good.

Yes, it seem obvious in hindsight that there needed to be give-and-take between the two parties, and this is one of those areas. Maintaining the OVP's immigration policies is something that the Greens would be more eager to push back on, if they were not negotiating for a govt with approximately 2 OVP minister for 1 Green. So, it appears they traded this plank away for more  aggressive climate policies like the Carbon Tax. The trade also is less painful than say the Lib-Dems action on tuition fees since they are getting this new 'Integration' ministry, which gives  the Greens a bit of a voice in this general policy track

The new Integration Ministry will be ÖVP-Held though, not Green.

Oops, thought it was a green position. My bad.