After the opposition blockade, there should be no free tests. Trade, gastronomy, tourism and probably also the schools will not open until January 24th. Health Minister invites you to debate at 12.30 p.m.
Tests in Austria
The lockdown in Austria will de facto be extended by one week. Because the possibility of Friday testing no longer applies in view of the opposition blockade announced on Sunday, as the APA learned from government circles. This means that trade, gastronomy, tourism and probably also schools will only be able to open on January 24th.
Originally it was planned that those who undergo a test would be able to gain advantages a week earlier – such as visiting cultural and sporting events or purchasing goods that are not needed every day, such as clothes or books. In addition, personal service providers such as hairdressers should be able to receive customers again on January 17th and schools should start classroom teaching.
Opposition refuses to approve
A corresponding amendment, which would have made it possible for the most free, was briefly sent for assessment on December 31. On Sunday, however, the opposition announced for various reasons that it would refuse to approve the law. This means that the bill could pass the National Council, but would be put on hold by the Federal Council for around two months thanks to the narrow majority of the SPÖ, FPÖ and NEOS (31:30).
It is so clear to the coalition that the lockdown must be extended by a week. Government circles told the APA that their plan to open up trade, schools and culture by means of free tests on January 18 would no longer be feasible due to the attitude of the opposition. The lockdown will now apply to everyone in Austria until January 24th.
How to proceed now
Today at 12.30 p.m. Health Minister Rudolf Anschober invites the opposition representatives to a debate. The conversation should originally have taken place at 10 a.m., but Anschober has postponed it because there is still a video conference between the federal and state governments beforehand.
It is unlikely that there will be an agreement after all. The government would have to submit a completely new proposal – it would have until Thursday or Friday, when a special session of the National Council is planned. With a compromise it could end with the freest from January 18th.
It is said of the Neos that they are “always ready to talk” if Anschober should bring new and different suggestions. You are calling for a “much narrower” amendment to the law with a “much more precise mapping of the planned rules”. The amendment is currently too broad – Anschober would have too much leeway to issue further rules in ordinances that are not yet known.
SPÖ against “threatening gestures” by the government
The SPÖ considers the government's announcement to extend the lockdown to January 24 due to the lack of an agreement as a “threatening gesture”. The Tyrolean SPÖ boss Georg Dornauer says: “If the government thinks it can sell the people in our country for stupid, politically blackmail the opposition, and arbitrarily – without the relevant facts and legal situation – lock up the population for a week longer and thus the entire population Cause further damage to the economy, then the Chancellor (Sebastian Kurz, ÖVP, note) leaned too far out of the window in his detachment this time, “said Dornauer. The Tyrolean SPÖ leader had already recommended two days ago to his party to vote against the most free.
“The most free, as the Chancellor imagines, is unconstitutional, is described by leading virologists as pointless, since it is only a snapshot and proves once again that the rulers have long lost control of the matter,” criticized Dornauer . He also said that anyone who adheres to the hard lockdown until January 18th does not need confirmation from his point of view to be allowed to visit a retail shop or an inn.
The FPÖ calls for the lockdown to be “ended as soon as possible”. There needs to be “effective protection for the particularly endangered people in old people's homes and nursing homes. So far, most of the infection has taken place there. This requires the use of all available resources,” says FPÖ boss Norbert Hofer. Club boss Herbert Kickl invites you to a press conference today at 1 p.m.
Germany will probably extend its lockdown by two to three weeks, i.e. until the end of January, due to bad corona numbers.
“Free testing”: Puchhammer-Stöckl sees this critically
From an epidemiological point of view, the virologist Elisabeth Puchhammer-Stöckl spoke critically about the idea of the Friday evening in ZIB 2 on Sunday . You already have a “problem” with the “freestyle term” alone. In her criticism, she referred to the fact that a rapid test was only valid for the day in question. Antigen tests immediately before events would “make sense”, but a test that is a week old does not.
