One might believe that even in the Vienna city government, the division of labor applies, whereby unpleasant tasks are left to women. City councilors Barbara Novak (Finance) and Ulli Sima (Planning) were "allowed" to go public this Monday to announce a burden for most Viennese: The price for the annual pass for public transport will be increased by more than a quarter to 467 euros, and that for the parking permit by almost a third to 156 euros per year.
The arguments from Novak and Sima were coherent: The Wiener Linien make a great effort to maintain services at a very high level in a rapidly growing city. Moreover, the annual pass has cost the same since 2012. Or rather, little in international comparison. In Munich, for example, one pays 609 euros.
In this respect, Vienna is making a moderate partial adjustment to inflation and moving to a moderate level. Nevertheless, one cannot say "All is well" and move on to the agenda.
Firstly: It is a story that shows that voters are being taken for fools. Of course, most would understand that price changes are necessary from time to time. As the saying goes, the truth is bearable for people. All the more reprehensible is that Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) explicitly said this before the municipal council election in April: The annual pass for the Wiener Linien will "continue to be available for 365 euros, i.e., 1 euro per day!"
The ticket has been available in this form since 2012, Ludwig continued: "If one were to consider inflation, the ticket would already cost twice as much. But for social and ecological reasons, we are sticking to the 365 euros – because the Viennese benefit from affordable mobility and it is an important contribution to a sustainable future."
None of this applies anymore. The reference to the fact that this is due to the budget crisis is beside the point: Ludwig already knew back then that there would be new debt in the billions this year alone. All the less should he have made such a promise.
Secondly: The federal government, to which Ludwig's SPÖ is known to belong, is currently struggling with a wave of inflation. Although it already has no money to, for example, reduce VAT and thus relieve people. Therefore, it distracts and instead calls on the EU to ban the "Austria surcharge" on food.
In any case: The red-pink led Vienna contradicts all this. If, for example, the annual pass becomes about 100 euros more expensive, it may still be cheaper considering inflation than many years ago. However, its price is now rising massively – and this is again a contribution to the fact that inflation remains far too high. And indeed, to the detriment of the government, which ultimately also suffers from it.
Johannes Huber runs the blog dieSubstanz.at – Analyses and Backgrounds on Politics
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.