Because too few posters and advertisements were paid for by the government, according to SPÖ member Julia, ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz would be jointly responsible for the low vaccination rate in Austria. Although the tightening has led to an increased rush on the vaccination routes, according to the SPÖ, the lack of information about the “Austria vaccinates” campaign was to blame for the lack of motivation to vaccinate.
In May 2021, 2.4 million euros were billed for the launch of the vaccination campaign, while it was only two million euros in June. In the table in Schallenberg’s response to the inquiry, only 523,817.51 euros were billed. It was even less in August – it was only 198,890.11 euros.
The start of the vaccination campaign in January was still very promising with 3.3 million euros. After less was booked in the summer, expenditure rose again to 1.4 million euros in September. The reason for this is, among other things, the increasing number of infections. SPÖ environmental spokeswoman Julia Herr criticized the fact that Kurz has drastically reduced the budget for the vaccination campaign. The eXXpress heard from ÖVP circles: “That is not really correct: The Greens have blocked advertisements for weeks. For party-political reasons: You didn’t want the important vaccination advertisements to appear in really all media ”
Schallenberg defended himself against this criticism and emphasized that the campaign was neither stopped in the summer, nor has it expired. Only the focus of the management of the information and service campaign would have changed, according to Schallenberg. In the summer, the focus was more on the youth as a target group. Therefore, the focus was on social media. So one tried to pick up the young people where they often stay. There was also a cooperation with influencers. They have made free advertising space available on digital partner exchanges.
