Austria to erect a border fence

Commentators on both Left and Right ridicule the Austrian government’s communication stunt:  how to call the proposed fence on the Austrian-Slovenian border a non-fence. 

EU member states are one by one betraying core European values, Népszabadság claims in a front page article on the proposed Austrian border fence. The leading left-wing daily finds it disappointing that the same Austrian government which criticized Hungary for sealing off the green border, now wants to do the same to keep asylum seekers out. In an aside, Népszabadság criticizes what it calls the Austrian government’s ‘double speak’, when it calls its own fence something different in order to save face.

The Austrian government is desperately searching for a proper synonym for the border fence, Mariann Őry writes in Magyar Hírlap. The conservative columnist finds Austrian efforts to reframe the fence as a “gate with side panels”, absurd. It must require considerable self-discipline and communication skills from those Austrian government members who harshly criticized Hungary for sealing off the green border, to label their own fence a ‘non-fence’, with a straight face, Őry ruminates.

Tags: Austria, migration