At the current EU summit, the issue of migration is once again at the top of the agenda. One of the countries that is pushing for the strictest possible regulations is Austria. Why is the issue so important to the government in Vienna?
Austria, the planned changes to EU asylum law do not go far enough. Or more precisely: the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). She occupies the relevant ministries in the black-green government and sets the tone in the debate.
Asylum procedures in third countries
For example, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner announced immediately after the agreement with his EU colleagues on stricter asylum rules that further steps were needed – for example asylum procedures in third countries, i.e. outside the EU.
In addition, Austria repeatedly calls for “robust” border protection. Chancellor Karl Nehammer, also ÖVP, wants the EU to pay for fences and walls, including in Bulgaria, which shares a border with Turkey.
Austria does not want to stick to the agreement
Austria is not willing to take in migrants from camps at the EU’s external border – or pay money if it doesn’t take in any migrants. That was actually what the interior ministers had agreed on.
Austria has shown solidarity enough in recent years, according to the ÖVP. She uses the high number of asylum applications in the past year as an argument. It was 109,000, as Nehammer emphasizes at every opportunity.
What Nehammer omits: More than 40,000 people have evaded their asylum procedures. Most of them may have left Austria for other countries. The number with which the ÖVP argues is inflated by almost 40 percent.
Global desire for less migration
But with the topic of migration you can score points domestically in Austria. A survey this spring showed: In no other country in the world is the reduction of migration as important to the population as in Austria. The political scientist Kathrin Stainer-Hämmerle sees the political majority in Austria clearly right of center.
Ever since the right-wing populist Jörg Haider entered the political arena in the 1990s, the far-right party FPÖ has been campaigning against migration. The partly right-wing extremist party has been leading the polls in Austria for several months with around 30 percent.
2024 are general elections. The strategy of the ÖVP is to curb the successes of the FPÖ by taking over topics.
In the election campaign, differences to the far right blur
The political scientist Thomas Hofer said on the ORF television channel that the ÖVP had decided not to promote differences to the FPÖ, but rather to blur them. He sees this as a desperate attempt by the ÖVP to return to the old position under Sebastian Kurz.
So far without success. The FPÖ gained ground in several state elections this year. Even if the number of asylum applications in Austria is currently declining: the ÖVP is not expected to change course.
Vienna does not want to finance the EU fight against migration
Chancellor Nehammer is also counting on cooperation with Italy’s post-fascist head of government, Giorgia Meloni. Both met at the weekend at the Europa Forum Wachau.
With a view to the EU summit starting today, Nehammer said in Meloni’s direction that it would be about fighting for the Union. The EU Commission must be reminded that it works for the member states – and not the member states for the Commission.
Nehammer may have meant the dispute over the EU budget, among other things. The EU Commission is demanding more money for the multiannual financial framework up to 2027, including for the fight against illegal migration. Although Austria is demanding exactly this fight, Nehammer has already rejected the EU Commission’s demands for money.