Dispute in the National Council: ÖVP versus FPÖ in asylum chaos!

Dispute in the National Council: ÖVP versus FPÖ in asylum chaos!

In today's National Council meeting there are heated debates about asylum policy and the situation in Syria. SPÖ club vice-president Philip Kucher calls for the situation to be handled carefully and warns against hasty conclusions. “We can all only hope for the best, but we are well advised to prepare well for all scenarios,” said Kucher, before discussing the differences between the political parties. While the SPÖ wants to find solutions, the FPÖ lives from the problems, according to Kucher. He pays particular attention to the former Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, whose measures may have seemed great in staging at the time, but failed in terms of practical solutions APA OTS reported.

Another point of discussion was Minister Gerhard Karner from the ÖVP, who praised the suspension of the processing of Syrian asylum applications after the fall of the Assad regime. The focus is now on an orderly repatriation program that begins with voluntary return assistance in Turkey. Karner reported that the number of illegal border crossings has fallen from 80,000 two years ago to just 4,500 this year. This happened parallel to the closure of numerous asylum accommodations. The FPÖ, on the other hand, criticizes the ÖVP's measures as inadequate and calls for stricter control of asylum procedures. Hannes Amesbauer, security spokesman for the FPÖ, described Karner's representations as a "fairytale hour" and questioned the current numbers of asylum applications. According to Amesbauer, the Blues stand for zero immigration, while the ÖVP only implements “pseudo measures”. courier also reported that last Sunday, 30,000 Syrians gathered in front of parliament in a short time during a demonstration.