Before the National Council election, the then ÖVP leader and Chancellor Karl Nehammer knew nothing of budgetary difficulties, let alone a savings package. The then Finance Minister, ÖVP man Magnus Brunner, also glossed over the circumstances. However, all experts, starting with the chairman of the Fiscal Council, Christoph Badelt, pointed out what the situation really is.
The ÖVP only wants to have known about it since Christmas time. It's unbelievable. Worse: The party pretends that this is a reason why the negotiations with SPÖ and Neos, which ultimately failed, took so long; and that it is now going so quickly with the FPÖ: The facts are now on the table.
Here a party, which claims to be state-supporting, is making a fool of the people. And comprehensively: According to their representations, black-red was impossible because social democrats would have insisted less on savings and more on tax increases. That may be. But today she did not hesitate to tie up a burden package with the FPÖ.
This is the point where the speech must come to the future Chancellor, FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl. In one respect he is right: The ÖVP has amply demonstrated that it cannot handle money. She has to take responsibility for that. However, the fact that Kickl is now moving towards tax increases with her is surprising. When Nehammer signaled readiness for tax increases in December, he was furious: With that he had "finally lost any credibility," he declared. And in his election program it says. "We firmly reject new tax burdens."
The FPÖ thus moves to the same level as the ÖVP: Experts like Badelt have long thought that one must save and raise taxes; that the renovation can only be done quickly in this way. But they have given the impression until the end that it could be done without tax increases.
De facto, there are now such: The abolition of the climate bonus, for example, costs a family with two children up to 870 euros a year. The climate bonus was expressly intended to offset the CO2 taxation. That will soon be over. So the family will have correspondingly less money in the future. Yes, it will have even less left if it needs new papers (passport, driver's license, etc.) and will therefore be affected by the announced fee increase.
Of course: It is politically legitimate to take such measures. One can even state that they are justified and necessary. But that's not the point here: Promises were made against better knowledge exclusively of relief, especially for a mass that gets up early to perform, as is so often emphasized. In this respect, the FPÖ has now fallen over with the ÖVP.
Johannes Huber runs the blog dieSubstanz.at – Analyses and backgrounds on politics
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.