Actually, Austria's Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) and Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens) wanted to use the forced “Green Pass” as early as April 2021 on a national level, i.e. for use in Germany. Nothing will come of this for the time being, because the Federal Council rejected the amendments to the laws by 29 to 27 votes. The planned access tests for retail are also affected.

The circumstances that led to the rejection in the Länderkammer are quite remarkable, because the SPÖ is strictly against the government's plans. Burgenland Governor Hans-Peter Doskozil (SPÖ) asked “his” federal councilors to leave the room, on the one hand not to vote against the party line and on the other hand to be able to obtain a majority for the government's project. The Burgenlanders did that too, but it was not enough for approval in the Federal Council, because two ÖVP mandataries and one from the Greens were ill and therefore generally not present on that day. Thus, the governing parties did not have a majority in the Bundesrat.

The present federal councilors of the opposition were therefore in the majority and voted unanimously against the planned changes to the epidemic and Covid-19 measures laws. The consequence of this is that the plans are now suspended for eight weeks and can only then be announced.

However, this setback could have far-reaching consequences for the population because, according to reports, the Anschober Ministry wants to enforce the next nationwide lockdown after Easter at the latest. This time the situation in the intensive care units is used as a justification. Since there are major disagreements between the federal government and the federal states on this issue, further developments remain to be seen.