Werner Kogler's exclamation at the Green Party's federal congress in Villach sounded a little like self-incantation: "It's not the time for cheap polemics," announced the Austrian Vice-Chancellor on Saturday in a stately manner.
But wasn't there something?
Isn't it said that the constant "throwing" (backstabbing) between Kogler's Greens and their conservative coalition partner, the Chancellor's Party ÖVP, is so exhausting that the veteran Kogler has become tired of office?
Most recently, the ÖVP had even called the Constitutional Court to clarify whether the Ministry of Justice, led by the green junior partner, was negligently delaying the release of files.
Files from which the Conservatives expect relief in the ongoing committee of inquiry into corruption in their own party.
Scenes from a broken marriage?
Might be.
But there is no talk of an upcoming divorce.
According to surveys, the coalition parties together are only 35 percent.
Breaking the government alliance would be tantamount to political suicide.
The recently re-elected party leader Kogler knows that too.
Official secret from 1925
And so we keep trying to find common ground.
On Wednesday, the ÖVP and the Greens introduced the draft of the new party law in Parliament - it provides for stricter rules on party financing and on limiting election campaign costs.
Tricky detour constructions, as indicated by the then FPÖ boss Heinz-Christian Strache in the finca on Ibiza, should be prevented in the future.
Significantly more drastic penalties are provided for violations.
The Court of Auditors should be given the right to audit the parties' accounts - "a license to bulldoze" (rummage through), as the opposition FPÖ noted disgruntled.
Side note: The ÖVP is still working on its annual report for 2019.
In a country in which the greatest possible lack of transparency and a penchant for backroom deals are part of the political legacy, a new party law would only be a first step in the right direction.
So far, official secrecy dating back to 1925 has not been abolished, nor has criminal law on corruption been tightened – both are key demands of the Greens.
It is not easy to keep track of the affairs between Neusiedler and Lake Constance at the moment: the economic and corruption prosecutor's office is still investigating various ÖVP grandees, including ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, and so far without any tangible results.
Since last week, there have also been charges against several suspects close to the ÖVP in the westernmost state of Vorarlberg.
It is essentially about non-taxed income from advertisements that are said to have been collected from companies, including state-owned ones, with gentle pressure.
Some of the income ended up in a roundabout way with Chancellor Karl Nehammer's Christian conservative party and in the pockets of individual functionaries.
Similar tricky methods in other federal states are still being sought.
Vorarlberg: Austria in miniature
The close, almost symbiotic relationship between politics, business and the media is not unique to Vorarlberg.
In the tranquil »Ländle« it is just more obvious than elsewhere: in the provincial capital of Bregenz, the model of Austria in miniature comes to the fore.
Here, too, the Greens govern together with the affair-torn ÖVP.
Will the Greens, always avant-garde in demanding transparency and honesty, vote in favor of the motion of no confidence against the Vorarlberg governor Markus Wallner on May 11?
"Of course not," says Johannes Rauch, Minister for Social Affairs in the Federal Government, with a disarming logic of maintaining power: "That would mean ending the coalition."
Since Monday and until the weekend, the referendum against corruption can be signed throughout Austria.
100,000 signatures would be needed for the subject of the request to be dealt with in Parliament.
The success of the venture is seen as a measure of the annoyance of the electorate at the arrogance of civil servants and the self-service mentality.
"The ÖVP has no corruption problem," Chancellor Nehammer announced in December.
However, 90 percent of all Austrians have a different opinion – not just about the ÖVP, but about the country as a whole.
»Sloppy system«
"In recent years, the old, already sloppy relationships in this country have become even more sloppy, not just between politics and the media," judges ORF moderator Martin Thür. The finding does not only affect the ÖVP: "All governing parties of the decades have exploited this shoddy system and circumvented the existing norms.«
Thür was awarded the Concordia Prize in the freedom of the press category last Tuesday at the Vienna Hofburg.
His merit: he had fought for the right up to the Constitutional Court to find out how much salary was paid to retired parliamentarians.
This request had previously been rejected by the President of the National Council, by Wolfgang Sobotka, ÖVP.
Of course, Sobotka was also present as the host at the award ceremony in the Hofburg.
He posed for the winning photo with Thür and the other honorees, praising the importance of a free press and the distinction “between fact and fake”.
Sobotka is currently being investigated for abuse of office.
Which doesn't stop him from heading the parliamentary committee of inquiry again this week - it's about corruption among government members of Sobotka's own party, the ÖVP.
Social Media Moment of the Week:
The report by the "Bild" editor Julian Röpcke that Austria would pay for its gas deliveries from Russia in rubles in the future spread on Twitter in a matter of seconds - the denial by Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who spoke of "fake news", came a little later.
It is still unclear which mode of payment Vienna will ultimately choose.
Stories we recommend:
How Chancellor Karl Nehammer made his wife Katharina one of his closest advisors.
News of the "STANDARD" from the Vorarlberg ÖVP swamp.
And why Austria is attractive to Putin's oligarchs.
Kind regards
Walter Mayr, correspondent for Austria and Southeast Europe, DER SPIEGEL
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