Börse Express – SPÖ-Matznetter/Schroll: Government drives Austria into the crisis on the wall!
Failures of ÖVP and Greens dangerous companies and jobs and the energy supply of Austria
“The government’s inaction against the background of the current situation on the energy market – in particular the bottleneck in gas due to the stopped delivery via Nord Stream I – is causing ever greater problems. The ÖVP and the Greens are driving the republic to the wall because there is neither a protective shield for the energy supply nor aid for the energy-intensive economy and industry. With Lenzing AG, the first Austrian company is affected that has to reduce production due to high energy costs and send employees on short-time work. When Brand is on board, the captain’s place is on the bridge, not in the cabin. Where is the Austrian government, where is the chancellor, where is the energy minister, where is the economics minister?” said SPÖ economics spokesman Christoph Matznetter at a press conference. ****
“While the ÖVP and the Greens are endangering Austria as a business location and hundreds of thousands of jobs with their political failures, the German government has made provisions for German companies: “Since mid-July, companies in our neighboring country have been able to access financial grants to secure production operations. The German protective shield is endowed with a total of 5 billion euros. The subsidy for a single company can be up to 50 million euros. This is how crisis management works!”, explains the SPÖ business spokesman.
“Next week, the special summit of energy ministers will take place – it is still completely unclear what attitude Energy Minister Gewessler WILL take at the summit. The fact that Chancellor Nehammer and Energy Minister Gewessler have so far actively prevented interventions in the energy market and have resisted the suspension of the merit order principle for months endangers our state and the population,” warns SPÖ energy spokesman Alois Schroll.
The energy spokesman for the SPÖ adds to the government’s many failings in the area of energy supply: “There has been no energy efficiency law for 609 days and the implementation of the Renewable Energy Expansion Act has been missing since July 2021. The Renewable Heat Act was under review until mid-July, and nothing has been heard of it since then. These are all laws that we would urgently need in the crisis,” criticizes Schroll and asks: “Where is the journey going? We don’t know, although a two-thirds majority in the Austrian Parliament is usually required for the implementation of European decisions on energy issues. It is high time that the government finally worked for the people of this country!” Schroll concluded. (Ending)