Austria VS. Wallflower
STAN movement leader and Interior Minister Vít Rakušan released an anti-government video in which he slanders the government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS), who “compromise, play against the wall, use unnecessary tactics and betray the trust of many.” The montage shows the Austrian in the football booth with other players as he explains to him how the team should behave and says he wants to “toughen up” his policy. “We are using tactics unnecessarily, we are playing against the wall. We have betrayed the trust of many people to stay in the sport,” the Austrian said in a video, which invites citizens to debate with politicians from the STAN movement. The news comes shortly after MPs announced an extraordinary inquiry into the tragic shooting at the Faculty of Philosophy in Prague.
Austria's video deals with what mayors and independents dislike about government coalitions. “Fathers, it's not good, people look at us and don't understand what we're doing. We're unnecessarily tactical, we're playing against the wall,” the Austrian criticizes his team in the role of soccer coach or team leader. “No more political tricks. It's time to stop making unnecessary compromises and start doing the right thing.”
It is a shame that the 1st Deputy Minister did not speak to the Prime Minister before he started making videos against the government. https://t.co/Fhg87ZSeF3
— Veronika Vrecionova (@vrecionova)
January 15, 2024
“We betrayed the trust of many people in order to stay in the game. We approached compromises, it is necessary to change it and return to why we started doing it in the first place,” continues the interior minister. “We need to harden our politics and do only the right thing.”
In a dramatic video from a sporting context, Austrian Prime Minister Peter Fiala says he will announce this and calls on the audience to come to the debate without the censored debate organized by the STAN movement. “I will accept any criticism and certainly without censure,” said the Austrian in a soccer jersey number 5 and shorts.
The video clip quickly went viral on social networks, where MEP Veronika Vrezionova also took a dig at Austria. “It's a shame that the First Deputy Prime Minister didn't talk to the Prime Minister before he started shooting anti-government videos,” wrote Vrecionová on the X platform.
Ondřej Krutílek, top three for ODS in the European elections, responded similarly. “Recently, Vít Rakušan has been constantly throwing ashes on his head about the need to improve government communications,” Krudilek wrote on the X Network.
Austria's promotional video comes in dramatic times, with the investigation into the brutal massacre at the Faculty of Philosophy in Prague still ongoing. The Austrian ministry faces a series of questions about police intervention, which both police and interior ministry representatives have so far avoided.
Representatives from across the spectrum agree that December's tragic shooting at Charles University's faculty of the arts and an extraordinary debate about police intervention are coming together. The head of the Security Council, Pavel Žáček (ODS), told Echo24, and Alena Schillerová, head of the ANO delegation, confirmed. Žaček thinks there will be enough votes for approval, and the matter could come up for debate on Tuesday. The legislators are largely responding to the complaints of his daughter ANO MP Jan Richter, who was one of the injured during the accident.
“I have new information that there is an agreement to hold an extraordinary meeting on intervention in the plenary session tomorrow. All aspects should be discussed there,” Žáček told the teachers.
Fiala defended the Austrian during the case surrounding the encrypted phone
Ironically, Prime Minister Fiala has detained an Austrian minister in the past during the case surrounding the encrypted phone. The Minister of the Interior, like his party colleagues Petr Gazdík and Stanislav Polčák, used a phone encrypted with the CryptoCult app. The defendants in the dosimeter case and the central character of the case, controversial businessman Michael Redl, used the same device to contact Caustic or Polcock. Ownership of an encrypted phone cannot be a reason to fire a member of the government, Fiala responded last September to a call by the opposition movement ANO to fire the interior minister.
