The division of labor in the black-red-pink government is becoming disastrous for SPÖ leader Andreas Babler. The rent price cap, which was important to him, is not only long gone, but is also increasingly overshadowed by things that make it fade into oblivion. And things that Babler cannot like.
At the beginning of May, the government announced that it would get serious with planned tightening of the popular corridor pension, a type of early retirement. More precisely: Black and pink representatives announced it publicly. Babler's SPÖ, which even has the responsible Social Minister Korinna Schumann, preferred to stay away from the press conference. They support the measure but do not want to be associated with it.
Whether this will go through is questionable. Especially since Babler's SPÖ supports much more. Although he announced that "broad shoulders," meaning people with (a lot of) money, should be burdened for budget consolidation, the first thing to be cut is the climate bonus. And secondly, it is announced that family benefits like family allowance will be frozen. This means that they will noticeably lose value, especially in times of increased inflation, effectively being cut.
The climate bonus may have been madness because everyone simply received money. Out of the blue, so to speak. "Everyone" means that people who don't need it benefited, but also people who depend on it. For a family of four with two children in Vienna, it amounted to at least 435 euros. This is significant, especially for larger families: Many of them are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
Such things have the potential to contribute to Babler's end as a top politician: The rent price cap may bring great relief, but it is hardly noticed by anyone. It is, after all, a non-increase in rents or a non-reduction of other disposable income. At least through the elimination of the climate bonus, people are being denied a payment they previously received. That is a small but crucial difference.
And it's just the beginning: When the government program was written, Babler may have still counted on being able to push through things like a basic child security in a year or two and score points with it. However, after just a few weeks, the budgetary outlook has darkened so much that such things are becoming rather impossible. Instead, additional cuts are pre-programmed.
This is a double catastrophe for Babler: There is nothing to distribute and nothing to redistribute. As Finance Minister Markus Marterbauer (SPÖ) has confirmed, there will be no wealth tax in this legislative period. Babler had demanded such a tax but did not get it through with the ÖVP and Neos. Now, it speaks well for him that he accepts this in the spirit of compromise. However, for his political survival, such a tax would be more important than ever due to the growing need for budget consolidation.
Johannes Huber runs the blog dieSubstanz.at – Analyses and Backgrounds on Politics
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.