“In view of the increasing resistance of the member states to the EU’s completely unsuitable asylum system, the new migration commissioner would be required to work on a restrictive policy from day one. The problem is: the person in charge is called Magnus Brunner and is completely unsuitable for this job,” said the EU spokeswoman for the Freedom Parliamentary Club and MEP today at the press conference of the FPÖ delegation for the EU Parliament’s plenary week in Strasbourg.
Steger gave three main reasons for a last-minute exchange before the designated commissioners face the hearings in the EU Parliament at the beginning of November. “Firstly, Austria has an almost catastrophic asylum record. Due to the incompetence and inaction of the black-green government, our country has had to cope with around 230,000 asylum applications since 2020. Only 70,000 people were asked to leave the country due to lack of protection. Only 25,000 complied with this request. Making a minister of this government responsible for asylum and migration at EU level means nothing more than turning the goat into a gardener,” said Steger.
Secondly, Brunner is also unsuitable for the future job due to his work as ÖVP finance minister: “A few days after the election it became known that the budget deficit was much higher than the finance ministry had admitted up to that point. The budget got completely out of control under Brunner and the finance minister lost all control over it. This means that this federal government has never fulfilled the Maastricht criteria in the last five years and has therefore not only conducted an election campaign based on an untruth, but the finance minister has also served this untruth to the EU for years. It is therefore unthinkable that the President of the Commission and the EU Parliament would accept a Commissioner who has such a sloppy approach to the truth and who has proven to have provided his new employer with false figures.”
The third reason for the reshuffle derives from the result of the National Council election: “If the government were to accept the election results, it would have to recall Brunner as commissioner and send a liberal migration commissioner in his place – or better yet, a remigration commissioner. The FPÖ’s leading position, which was already clearly visible in surveys when Brunner was nominated by the government, has now been confirmed in the election. Therefore, the FPÖ and no one else would have the right to appoint the EU Commissioner,” said Petra Steger.
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