In the past, EU Commission President Juncker repeatedly criticized Austria’s Chancellor for his ‚deliberately schizophrenic‘ populist love and referred to Kurz as a ‚part-time European‘.
How much Heinz-Christian Strache is actually in Sebastian Kurz? And who actually checks whom: Strache Mr. Kurz. Or short Mr. Strache? That is the question which Jean-Claude Juncker posed several times during the Austrian EU Council Presidency last year. Especially on the subject of the UN Refugee Pact.
Juncker noted with great astonishment that Chancellor Kurz had negotiated decisively during this presidency of the UN migration pact – in order to suddenly consider the pact as dangerous and to release the agreement for the right-wing populist to shoot down.
At the end of last year, Juncker criticized Austria’s Federal Chancellor for his criticism of the immigration pact: „It would have been desirable if the Austrian EU Presidency had headed in the right direction, instead of sending out negative signals.“
Juncker: In short, a splitter
Instead of building bridges, as promised by Sebastian Kurz in the summer of the beginning of the Council presidency, Austria played the role of the splitter in the matter of the UN migration pact. The direction had given Austria’s Vice Chancellor Strache. And suddenly Kurz also had reservations about the UN migration pact, which his government was involved in working out.
Despite „some positive facets“ for Kurz suddenly outweighed the disadvantages. And that’s why Sebastian Kurz decided: Austria does not sign the pact and abstains. Encouraged by the Austrian example, other European states also shied away from the Pro-Migration Pact.
Kurz is also on a hard course in the EU refugee policy. Concerning the topic „Rescue of migrants in the Mediterranean“, it is important for the Austrian Chancellor that this rescue is also increasingly carried out by the Libyan Coast Guard. What Sebastian Kurz does not mention in his speeches on the EU stage: on land, these migrants expected the horror. Torture, maltreatment and rape are commonplace in Libyan refugee camps, according to reports by human rights organizations. Many inmates need to drink toilet water.
Short acted in FPÖ style
The rescue by the Libyan coast guard, so short at his appearances in Brussels „means that people do not even go on their way, because it is no longer attractive.“ The German Chancellor has very accurately recorded that throughout the Austrian EU Council Presidency, not one of the migrants rescued by private maritime rescue organizations in the Mediterranean was
Sebastian Kurz acted tough in FPÖ style. And agitates in the EU election campaign populist against the alleged regulatory anger of the EU. For example, against the acrylamide regulation for the containment of carcinogenic substances, a regulation which allegedly threatens Wiener Schnitzel and French fries.
„Schizophrenia can be treated, but conscious schizophrenia is not,“ countered Jean-Claude Juncker in an interview with the Austrian daily Der Standard. Finally, Austria has approved the acrylamide regulation. Sebastian Kurz is at best a part-time European for Juncker, who likes to wave his flag against Brussels when it comes to chasing away populists‘ voices.
