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Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen’s New Year’s address was dominated by the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences for society. He said it was difficult not to give up hope. “And yet: we must not lose heart,” and according to Van der Bellen, that is the duty of citizenship.
At the beginning of his speech, Van der Bellen recalled the “Ibiza” affair two years ago. At that time, he had “spoken at this point about how important it is for our society to maintain courage and confidence.” For a brief moment, according to Van der Bellen, it then seemed “as if something like normality would return to our country after a government crisis and the subsequent new elections.”
“And then came Corona,” whereby at the beginning of the pandemic “there was still a great sense of cohesion,” as Van der Bellen elaborates here. “But the longer this state of emergency lasted, first lockdown, second lockdown, another lockdown and another, the more clearly rifts in our community became noticeable.”
Impatience, skepticism, criticism, indignation and disappointment were followed by “anger, rage, fear; voices that know everything better, voices of mistrust, voices that speak of conspiracies, of unforgiveness, but also genuine despair,” the president said. “Today, some of these voices are so loud that you can no longer understand your own word.”
“And the end of Corona is far from in sight. Because just when we thought we had the worst behind us, Omicron came around the corner,” which is why it is now not known “what the next few weeks, indeed the next few days will bring us in this regard.”
Even though, according to Van der Bellen, people have become accustomed to this uncertainty, it is “difficult not to become apathetic. It is difficult not to give up hope. It’s hard not to be overcome by anger.”
“And yet, we must not lose heart.” That is now “our duty as citizens,” namely “not to let go, to stick to it, to be there for each other.” Van der Bellen recalled the line “Courageously into the new times” – “these are the days when we fill our federal anthem with life.”
“We must not be indifferent to everything”.
“We must not let despair and anger rule us. We must not be indifferent to everything.” In addition to keeping our distance, wearing masks, getting vaccinated and washing our hands, he said, it’s about looking out for each other. “It would be a mistake, I think, to now disparage others who don’t agree with you,” the president warned.
Everyone is under pressure, he said, but you still have to believe in the good in others. For example, he said, one should take the dedication of health care workers as an example, “who have been at and over their limit for a long, long time and are now also being attacked for being there for others.”
Van der Bellen believes that it is not a matter of always agreeing with each other, but that we need to talk more again, and that we should take every opportunity to do so. At some point, people will look back on the time of the pandemic and say: “It’s good that we have found our relaxed attitude again. And never lost our courage and confidence. Good that we can still look each other in the eye,” Van der Bellen said. “I wish you and all of us together a great year 2022, despite everything.”
- source. ORF.at/agencies/picture. screenshot, orf.at
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