How united the parties represented in Parliament actually are on the vaccination issue will be seen when the eagerly awaited vote on the controversial law takes place in the afternoon. While the governing parties tried to demonstrate unity on this issue in the morning, the Green MP Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic stayed away from the meeting in protest. And she shouldn’t be the only one currently struggling. Of course, it is said behind closed doors that many politicians feel the displeasure of the unvaccinated or are critical of compulsory vaccination for personal reasons.

In any case, the one who makes no secret of its rejection is the FPÖ. She wants to vote against the law as a whole. FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl had been campaigning against the project on Facebook for the entire Thursday morning. And even his less vaccination-critical party colleagues like Norbert Hofer reject a duty. So there are no surprises here. At the moment, however, it was unclear how the former blue and now wild MP Philippa Strache will decide.

At the NEOS it is known that three to four MPs want to oppose the obligation to vaccinate, including the deputy club boss Gerald Loacker, the Tyrolean Johannes Margreiter and the new health spokeswoman Fiona Fiedler. And even with the SPÖ, the ranks are anything but closed, as party leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner had to admit on Thursday morning. You can therefore not rule out that there will also be dissenting voices within your party. These could come primarily from the union wing.