Expensive gifts

Election sweeteners cost more than the army

(Bild: thinkstockphotos.de)

Politicians are always tempted to decide on popular "goodies" for the electorate before elections. All too often, however, these sweeteners turn out to be bitter pills. The resolutions from the last four National Council elections alone cost more today than the entire Austrian army. 

Had it not been for these sweeteners, the budget would meet the Maastricht criteria of a maximum deficit of three percent. Instead, however, there is a threat of a 0.5 percent overshoot. Fiscal Council President Christoph Badelt urgently warns politicians against such election gifts: no measures should be adopted whose financing is completely in the stars, "because that ends in a large deficit".

(Bild: thinkstockphotos.de)

Costs totaling 31 billion euros 
The Fiscal Council has analyzed all election sweeteners since 2008 and calculated that they have cost a total of 31 billion euros to date. This year alone, the figure is 4.1 billion. That is more than the entire military and the police, which cost four billion each.

Head of the Fiscal Council Badelt says: Stop!

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Costs of five billion next year
Four billion is also more than Austria collects with the mineral oil tax (also four billion). This comparison is made by the Neos, who did not participate in these decisions in parliament. Lukas Sustala, head of the Neos-Lab: "In 2024, Austria will spend almost four times as much money on past election sweeteners as on the Future Fund. By 2026, it will be more than five billion euros. This shows that election campaign populism is completely oblivious to the future."

The most expensive election sweeteners were always measures in the social sector, such as the 2019 care allowance valorization, which will cost 515 million this year, or the increase in the transport deduction and the reimbursement of social security contributions with 500 million. In third place is the reduction in VAT on medicines in 2008, which will cost us 490 million this year.

2019 was the most expensive year
The most expensive year in this respect was 2019, when Turquoise and Blue broke up with Ibiza. The measures taken back then have worsened the budget balance by 2.2 billion euros today. The election sweeteners from 2008, 2017 and 2013 will burden the 2024 budget by 1.1 billion, 0.6 billion and 0.2 billion euros respectively. They largely consist of increases in expenditure. The Fiscal Council calculates that election giveaways in the form of increases in pension expenditure will account for around a third of the total burden from giveaways since 2008 in 2024.

There are numerous proposals for election gifts
In view of the enormous inflation in recent months, the parties have plenty of "relief proposals" up their sleeves that would place an additional burden on the budget - from the reduction or temporary suspension of VAT on food, energy and fuel to the abolition of the CO2 penalty tax. The budget watchdogs at the Fiscal Council can only hope that the boxes remain closed.