Experts draw gloomy pictures of the future – salzburg.ORF.at
politics
Losses in the tens of millions for domestic companies, extreme energy costs, unstable security of supply for gas and increasing danger of nuclear war. At a discussion on Tuesday evening in Salzburg, experts drew gloomy pictures – because of the Ukraine war.
The Porsche Holding in the Ukraine, Europe’s largest car dealership based in Salzburg, has 220 employees. A number of employees and their relatives have fled and operations have come to a standstill.
The expected losses are high, says holding boss Hans Peter Schützinger: “Ultimately we have to reckon with 40 to 50 million euros.”
Energy remains expensive
Michael Strugl is CEO of the Verbund Group, Austria’s largest energy provider. Struggl does not assume that energy prices will fall again in the near future – rather the opposite: “Electricity prices will remain high on the futures markets. With gas it is even more extreme because the supply is much more at risk here than with electricity.”
Soon smaller nuclear weapons on battlefields?
The Innsbruck political scientist Gerhard Mangott draws a bleak scenario. The use of tactical nuclear weapons is becoming more and more likely – no ICBMs, but smaller nuclear weapons, especially for fighting on limited battlefields: “It’s not likely, but the probability has increased. If Russia should face militarily difficulties, there is no contact that it will escalate with a tactical nuclear weapon – to improve its position.”
The Russia expert does not expect a coup against Vladimir Putin.