Attack on Austria? “Then we expect help after all” – politics
Sweden is throwing neutrality overboard, as is Finland – and Austria? In this country, the debate “without blinkers” is to be rekindled.
Even if Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer assumed that the discussion about Austria’s neutrality was over, the topic flared up again and again and more and more intensely. In the Causa, the ÖVP security spokesman Christian Stocker met late Monday evening as an ardent defender of neutrality and military strategist Walter Feichtinger as a supporter of a “discussion without blinkers” about a new security policy in the ORF “ZiB 2”.
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“I would say we only need to look at the surroundings,” said Feichtinger, explaining why Austria’s neutrality should be discussed. The situation has changed, the “threat is different” and one has to ask oneself whether neutrality is still the best security instrument for Austria today, according to the military strategist. For Stocker, on the other hand, neutrality is less a security instrument than a sign of the indivisibility and independence of the country.
“It should stay that way,” says Stocker. And because something like neutrality is old, that doesn’t mean it’s bad, said the ÖVP politician. In addition, according to Stocker, neutrality has already developed further, also with the borders within the EU alliance. However, that doesn’t go “far enough,” said Feichtinger, who denounced Austria’s attitude. Within the framework of neutrality, the EU has taken the liberty not to have to help other EU countries that are being attacked.
“I don’t see it that way”
On the other hand, however, Austria expects exactly this help from the other EU states in the event that it is attacked itself, according to Feichtinger. “I don’t see it that way at all,” Stocker said. Austria is not only surrounded by NATO countries and has neutrality as protection, but also the European Union – and there is an obligation to provide assistance if an EU country is attacked. The ÖVP’s plan is to increase defense spending to 1.5 percent of gross domestic product in order to improve Austria’s defense capabilities, according to the ÖVP security spokesman.
According to Stocker, the example of Switzerland shows that neutrality works. Feichtinger “lacks the belief” that there will be concrete measures in the army, so far he has only seen “declarations of intent”. But then both sides suddenly agreed that the war in Ukraine was an invitation to reconsider the country’s security, but not to throw everything overboard. But that would have to happen “without blinders,” said Feichtinger, and at the moment one would rather prevent these discussions.