CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 03/2020

L’AUTRICHE INTERVIEW
now is really be the time to break new
ground, especially in terms of foreign and
security policy.
Are you referring to the EU’s relationship with
other world powers like the USA?
Whoever might win the election this
autumn: Even a President Biden won’t be
able to bring the USA back on the same
track that it was on 20 or 30 years ago. The
interests of the USA are shifting eastwards.
Any power that spends decades as the economic
and military number one gets nervous
when number two starts challenging
it for its rank – that is, of course, China.
Geopolitical relations are turning more volatile,
not more stable.
What is the role of Europe in this power struggle?
The transatlantic relationship has already
changed. What is NATO’s future? President
Donald Trump has repeatedly left us
puzzled with his comments on NATO’s obsolescence.
Now, we also have voices on the
European side who are saying that it is time
to come up with something new. I had an
interesting conversation with President Putin
in Sochi on 15 May 2019, exactly two
days before the release of the Ibiza scandal
video. We also discussed the issue of military
expenditures. Putin explained that
Russia spends 50 billion euro per year on
its military, the EU 250 billion altogether
and the US 750 billion. I double-checked
this later. The numbers are basically accurate.
In other words, the EU spends three to
four times as much on military expenses as
Russia. The question is therefore: Who is
afraid of whom?
And where is China in all of this?
China is continuing its history from the
end of the 18th century. Imperial China
likely had the greatest GDP of any country
in the world at that time – at least in part
due to its large population. Then came various
internal conflicts, civil wars, the Opium
War, interventions through colonial
powers, later the Japanese invasion and
then the Second World War. China’s new
upswing began in the 1970s. In between lie
200 years of decline. My impression is that
the Chinese leadership is determined to
continue the old traditions. If you leave aside
the authoritarian ideology of the CCP
(Chinese Communist Party), then China
today has the same strict bureaucratic and
hierarchical structure that it had during the
imperial era.
Back to Europe. When you said that several heads
of government tried to push through their own
national agendas at the EU summit, were you
referring to the so-called “Frugal Four” (editor’s
note: Austria, Sweden, the Netherlands and
Denmark)?
This is only a side issue for me. Prior to
the summit, I invited all the EU ambassadors
to my office plus the representative of
the EU Commission Vienna, Martin Selmayr.
I was reminded tactfully more than
once that Austria belongs to those member
states that have benefited especiall – or
even the most – from the European Union.
From the disappearance of the Iron Curtain
to the accession of our neighbouring
countries into the EU. A small, export-oriented
country like Austria is fundamentally
dependent on cooperation. The interdependence
between the EU member
states has become so great that we must
cooperate more, not less.
One point of criticism was that the EU funds were
not linked with compliance with the rule of law.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán celebrated
it as a great success that he was able to fend off
this condition.
I do not wish to comment on Hungary
specifically, despite the fact that these problems
are indeed most visible there. But I do
PHOTOS: RALPH MANFREDA
remember a comment from a British
newspaper a few years ago, which said:
While you are just an accession candidate,
you have to be particularly cautious when it
comes to ensuring political purity. But
once you’re a member, you can stink as
badly as you like. We shouldn’t be invoking
these so-called European values on a daily
basis – including the rule of law and freedom
of the press – and then do nothing
when some countries don’t abide by them.
Did Austria react appropriately to the corona
crisis, in other words, with a rapid economic and
social lockdown?
Overall, yes! Details aside, our politicians
reacted appropriately and in time. Our
proximity to Italy also contributed to this.
If we hadn’t seen those terrifying images
from the hospitals in Lombardy, then we
may have tried to wait it out for another
week or two or even three. I do not wish to
know how the situation would have panned
out in that case. But we did react in a
timely manner and the public’s discipline
was correspondingly high in the first
weeks. But we all know that the pandemic
is not over yet. I still remember how everyone
used Israel as a role model in the beginning.
As it turns out, the virus has surged
there once again.
Austria’s domestic affairs are currently shaped by
the Ibiza scandal investigation. What should we
learn from this affair?
The obvious lesson for me is that the
rule of law has to be defended over and
over again. What were the main things we
could see in the video? Open political corruption,
namely the awarding of contracts
to one company at the expense of another.
Then party financing which bypassed the
law by way of some kind of association
structures. The undermining of press freedom
by way of the planned purchase of the
Kronen Zeitung newspaper company, where
unpleasant journalists would be kicked
out. I was stunned.
Is it a uniquely Austrian phenomenon that
Heinz-Christian Strache has returned to politics
Bundespräsident Alexander Van der Bellen
mit CD-Autor Otmar Lahodynsky und
CD-Herausgeber Alexander Bursky (von
rechts nach links).
Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen
with CD‘s author Otmar Lahodynsky and CD‘s
editor Alexander Bursky (from right to left).
60 Cercle Diplomatique 3/2020