ÖVP plans radical climate change-step back to CSU policy?

ÖVP plans radical climate change-step back to CSU policy?

The former FPÖ club chairman Peter Westenthaler has presented a secret negotiation paper from the ÖVP for the traffic light coalition on OE24, which announces an alarming step backwards in climate policy. The draft aims to reduce the national climate goals to European guidelines and to postpone the deadline for climate neutrality by ten years to 2050. In this explosive document it is made clear that adherence to the original climate target 2040, which was agreed with the Greens, is viewed as "No Go". Westenthaler emphasizes that the ÖVP positions now coincide with those of the FPÖ, which gives rise to concern about the future orientation of climate policy in Austria, such as OE24 reports .

In another frightening incident, the resolution procedure against Westenthaler was rejected, which led to tensions with the public prosecutor. Because of his controversial statements, this had filed a complaint on a TV show in which he described people from Afghanistan as a "maker murderer". Although the Vienna Regional Court hired the procedure, the public prosecutor is now complaining of what Westenthaler sees as an attack on critical votes in reporting. He found it outrageous that the authority tries to pursue government -critical journalists, although an independent judge has already decided that there is no criminal fact, according to Kurier .

These developments not only show the political maneuvers of the ÖVP, but also ask the question of how the independence of the judiciary in Austria can be preserved in a politically charged climate.