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Demonstration by opponents of Corona measures in Vienna on February 12
Photo: Stringer / imago images / SNA
Before the press conference begins in the imperial ambience of the Vienna Chancellery, helpers from the government headquarters distribute a lot of paper.
Every journalist gets three pages in their hands: a sheet on the corona measures that will soon be shut down.
An excerpt of a law is printed on the other two sides.
The second paragraph of paragraph 19, which can be described as a special treat for lovers of complicated legal German, is marked in yellow.
A single sentence, turned into eight lines.
It regulates the suspension of a measure that divides the red-white-red republic like no other set of rules: compulsory vaccination, which has been in effect since the beginning of February.
At the press conference, the conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer and his Green Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein explained verbosely what had previously leaked through the media: the legally prescribed immunization is about to be suspended.
This is not explicitly stated, politicians are protecting themselves: A commission is to be formed soon from members of the Corona expert committee Gecko and lawyers.
On their advice, the government should then officially declare the project mothballed in mid-March.
Nehammer assures that there should be clarity before the first penalties are pronounced.
Austria relaxes
But the abolition of compulsory vaccination is only part of the message that emanates from the Palais am Ballhausplatz that day.
The chancellor and his health minister announce that the corona measures in the republic will soon be reduced: where the 2G rule has been in force up to now, it is to be largely switched to 3G from next Saturday, and sports facilities and events should then also be equipped with an up-to-date version for the unvaccinated test be accessible.
From March 5th, almost all measures will be lifted: Only the mask requirement will initially remain in retail and on public transport.
Stricter rules only apply in particularly vulnerable facilities such as clinics, old people's and nursing homes.
However, the federal state of Vienna remains more cautious: the 2G rule in the catering trade should initially continue to apply in the capital.
And yet: Austria is just loosening up - an experiment is beginning, the outcome of which is uncertain.
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Pandemic: Austria and Switzerland lift almost all corona measures
Several journalists raise this question and refer to the active infection process in Austria.
More than 38,000 new cases were reported in the morning, and almost 310,000 people are currently infected - and that in a country with fewer than nine million inhabitants.
The question was asked: Does it make sense to let the protective measures expire so early?
Chancellor and Minister of Health point to a stagnating curve of infection and to the statements of researchers who hold out the prospect of a slowdown.
And yet: the far-reaching easing in the near future harbors risks.
Nehammer is also aware of this, so he emphasizes that he should proceed “carefully and with care”.
The announcement and the suspension of compulsory vaccination were a liberating blow
The head of government has prepared special formulations for this press conference.
It's about "getting our freedom back from the virus," the Chancellor asserts several times.
And his health minister speaks of a “dignified spring awakening”.
They are sentences that should exude harmony: There is no longer talk of the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, the rhetorical gulf should only run between humans and the virus.
The pressure on the chancellor party ÖVP had recently increased immensely.
The conservatives are losing in polls not only because of the smoldering corruption affairs and new embarrassing chats, but also because of the Corona policy.
In the Christ-Social heartland of Lower Austria, there will be a state election in a year at the latest.
The ÖVP has been operating there for decades like the CSU in its best days.
But in the meantime, the absolute majority in polls is gone, and Nehammer's party lost almost 19 percentage points in a local election in Waidhofen an der Ybbs, Lower Austria, which was used as a mood test.
Mass protests against compulsory vaccination and the influx of previous ÖVP sympathizers to the shrill opposition course of the right-wing populist FPÖ did their part.
It was clear to the ÖVP strategists: we have to do something, and quickly.
The bumpy Corona policy, which is already encountering growing resistance from its own voter clientele, was an obvious field.
It is therefore a remarkable swing by the coalition of Nehammer's conservative ÖVP and the Greens, but it is not entirely surprising in Austria's volte-ridden domestic politics.
A particular curiosity: Both the suspension and the announcement of compulsory vaccination served the government as a liberation.
It has only been eight and a half weeks since the previous Corona course was turned upside down at a federal-state meeting in Tyrol almost overnight: at the urging of the federal states, a lockdown on compulsory vaccination was decided.
Back then, for a short time, people in Austria felt like they were part of the European avant-garde.
And in fact, the rushing forward in terms of compulsory vaccination also had an impact on Germany.
Now the Austrian political decision-makers are in a hurry again - to get rid of the subject of compulsory vaccination.
In the federal states there was a noisy retreat days ago, now the chancellor and health minister followed.
The obligation to vaccinate has been suspended but not abolished
However, Nehammer and Mückstein do not want to politically bury compulsory vaccination.
During the press conference, the Chancellor spoke of a law that should be as flexible as the virus, and the comparison with a "tool box" was also made: "The right tool at the right time" was the obligation to vaccinate.
The vaccination requirement in Austria has not been abolished, Nehammer's coalition partner is also making sure of that.
The law is of "great relevance" for Austria, Green Party leader Werner Kogler told SPIEGEL.
"Of course it is an encroachment on a fundamental freedom," said the Vice Chancellor.
This encroachment is "only acceptable because it will hopefully end other massive encroachments on everyone's fundamental rights as soon as possible." Kogler cites restrictions on freedom of movement and assembly as examples.
It is also remarkable on this day how the chancellor differentiates himself from his predecessor and fellow party member Sebastian Kurz without naming his name.
"We haven't overcome the pandemic yet," he repeats like a mantra, "the corona virus is still a part of our lives."
There are tips against Sebastian Kurz, who just a few months ago predicted the Austrians full-bodied beautiful prospects.
Last summer, he promised a “cool time” and had the plague declared “mastered” on posters.
The gifted self-marketer appeared as a herald of the positive post-corona period, but then an unpleasant rendezvous with reality followed.
Because the chancellor's dictum about the end of the pandemic ignored the infection process, Austria slid into the delta wave at full speed in the fall.
Nehammer also wants to appear as a good mood maker, but also as a warning crisis manager.
Unlike Sebastian Kurz, whose comments often conveyed unambiguousness and aimed above all at the sovereignty of the current headlines, today's chancellor is already planning ahead.
The vaccination rate in Austria is still low in international comparison, new mutations are likely.
"No expert can predict what will actually happen in the fall," he once said.
Apparently Nehammer really doesn't want to be short.
