Tension between ÖBB and ÖVP

People ♦ Published: February 8, 2011; 01:53 ♦ (Vindobona)

The conflict over the finances of the Austrian State Railway between the ÖBB and the ruling ÖVP goes on.

Tension between ÖBB and ÖVP / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / NÖLB Mh [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

The liabilities of the ÖBB in the amount of € 16bn lead to heated words between politicians and the railway: for Christan Kern, the CEO of the Federal Railway, the debts of the ÖBB are "debts of the Minister of Finance".

Kern defended his company against the accusations made by State Secretary Reinhold Lopatka (ÖVP) that he would gloss over the figures and speak…