Romania: In protest against Vienna's refusal, citizens began to boycott Austrian companies
After blocking Romania's accession to the Schengen area, the Austrian interior minister says he is also angry. In an interview with Austrian media, Gerhard Karner said he was put in a position to vote before the population was ready for what was to come. Meanwhile, in Romania, in protest against Vienna's refusal, citizens began to boycott Austrian companies.
After the negative vote to the initiative regarding Romania's accession to the Schengen area on Thursday, the Austrian Minister of the Interior, Gerhard Karner, avoided answering the questions of the Romanian journalists present in Brussels. The official argued his decision in an interview given to the Austrian website Der Standard. Asked how he comments on the anger of Romanians after this vote, given that only a small percentage of illegal immigrants reach Austria through Romania, Karner came up with a reaction. “I'm angry too. Namely in connection with the procedure, with the fact that the legal documents were put on the table practically overnight. For more than a decade there has been talk about whether Schengen should be extended. And now it comes suddenly, without preparing the population for what this will bring: is it more security? Or is there a plus and a minus in terms of risk?” asks Gerhard Karner. Vienna's blockade of Romania's accession caused anger among Romanian citizens. Shortly after announcing the result of the JAI Council vote, the University Craiova Football Club declared on Facebook a "total boycott" of Austrian partner companies. "From our point of view, these companies, but not only them, are part of the absurd and discriminatory policy towards Romanians and Romania, promoted by the Austrian state these days. We hope that our approach will be joined by the entire Romanian football world because, today more than ever, we must show that we are mature enough from an institutional point of view to stop acting according to the saying: “ No sword cuts off a bowed head”, says the message of the footballers from Craiova. The anger of the Romanian customers also caused the representatives of the Austrian companies operating in Romania to react. The representative of an Austrian bank wrote on a social network that he fully supports Romania's accession to the Schengen area. "We were surprised by Thursday's decision. We see it only as an intermediate result. We will continue to support the efforts of the authorities to achieve this goal," the Austrian bank wrote. We remind you that yesterday Austria blocked Romania's accession to Schengen. The Netherlands also voted against to reject Bulgaria. Austria insists that Romania must wait and better secure its borders in the face of the migratory flow. FRONTEX data - the European institution empowered to assess the risks to border security at the EU level show that illegal migrants mainly used routes from other states on the Western Balkans route.
