The new party MFG (People, Freedom, Basic Rights) has now also spoken out about the Ukraine war and is warning them to consistently maintain neutrality. In doing so, it goes beyond the previous criticism in its demands. Federal Managing Director
Gerhard Pöttler explained in a press conference: “We as MFG demand the maintenance of neutrality in the sense of the word neutrality – from the Latin ‘ne-uter’. That means: ‘standing on neither side’. But that also means that if I supply helmets for one side, then I also have to supply helmets for the other side.”
The question of whether the helmets have so far gone to civilians is completely obsolete. In any case, the unilateral delivery to Ukraine would result in “a unilateral violation of neutrality”.
Pöttler also does not see anything to gain from the increase in the defense budget: “At the same time, war toys worth EUR 4.6 billion were purchased, while other people in Austria are starving and have nothing to eat.” While hundreds of thousands are unemployed and struggling to survive, “our government sponsors the war industry. After Corona, the next disaster follows: On the one hand, we are violating neutrality, on the other hand, these war toys will rot somewhere.”
Had Chancellor Karl Nehammer identified with Austria’s role as a neutral state, “he would have called to the table for negotiations, see the examples of best practice in the 1970s under Chancellor Bruno Kreisky.” He did the opposite. It is therefore also “not surprising that Moscow has already raised sharp criticism of Austria”, on the one hand against the “emotional anti-Russian rhetoric course of Chancellor Nehammer, on the other hand against the absurd accusations of Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg”.
