Kickl should decide

FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl must not only appear confident about eventually becoming Chancellor, after having missed a chance earlier this spring; it is indeed the case: He can assume that the ÖVP will ultimately help him achieve this.

The Austrian People's Party has been trying to copy the Freedom Party's policies for years. Under Sebastian Kurz, they were even temporarily very successful with it. But only temporarily, because Kurz stumbled over himself and his successors are failing on their own.

For example, Claudia Plakolm, who - like Kurz once was - is responsible for integration in the government and is also supposed to lean to the right in the sense of the ÖVP: It is particularly important to her that a headscarf ban for girls up to the eighth grade is introduced. Officially, it is supposed to be about protecting these girls. That would be a good approach. Politically, however, it is mainly supposed to be a signal against Islam, which would mean that it would be overturned by the Constitutional Court - as it was five years ago. 

However, Plakolm believes she has a solution to the problem: She wants to fix the headscarf ban as a constitutional provision. In the hope that the Constitutional Court could no longer act against it. However, this would require the support of the Greens or the Freedom Party. They would have to agree at the parliamentary level.

In effect, Plakolm is inviting Herbert Kickl and company to co-govern. The reason: The Greens will not be co-opted for what she wants. And Kickl and his ilk are fundamentally in favor of a headscarf ban. More precisely: Not only for a headscarf ban up to the eighth grade, but also beyond. And in general: They are against "illegal mass immigration under the asylum guise" and for "remigration." 

In other words: By wanting a headscarf ban that holds and cannot be overturned by the Constitutional Court; by indicating that the government needs the help of the Freedom Party for this, she expresses that without them - from her perspective - nothing decisive can happen. A declaration of bankruptcy. 

Enough? No: Plakolm enables Kickl to sell his approval for a headscarf ban at a high price. Of course, he is in principle in favor of it anyway. As mentioned, however, he wants a much more extensive ban, among other things. She will have a hard time objecting to this - unlike the Social Democrats and Neos, who, as coalition partners of the ÖVP, notice what is happening: Plakolm is in the process of handing over the reins to Kickl.

Johannes Huber runs the blog dieSubstanz.at – Analysis and background on politics

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.