With Black-Blue

SPÖ warns of savings package worth billions

Attack: SPÖ Finance Minister Kai Jan Krainer (left) has set his sights on ÖVP Minister Magnus Brunner. The latter is calm and warns against "election sugarplums":

(Bild: APA/ROBERT JAEGER)

SPÖ finance spokesman Kai Jan Krainer criticizes the government's budget policy and is certain that the ÖVP-FPÖ would intervene in pensions or healthcare. The Finance Minister counters.

The SPÖ dares to make an economic advance - gloomy scenario included. If the ÖVP forms a coalition with the FPÖ after the elections, which is to be expected, there will be an austerity package worth billions. This was said on Tuesday by SPÖ finance spokesman Kai Jan Krainer.

The head of the Fiscal Council, Christoph Badelt, had already indicated that people would have to make savings after the elections. "Black-Blue would then intervene in pensions, health and employees. Because both parties rule out taxes on millionaires," said Krainer. There would therefore be a program of cuts. The Reds speak of a "budget disaster" that did not fall from the sky.

Finance Minister Magnus Brunner and his ÖVP have vehemently spoken out against price and market interventions during the inflation crisis - resulting in the highest inflation in Western Europe. The Chancellor's party, on the other hand, always referred to its many billions in subsidies, support and increased purchasing power.

Call for a "cash crash before the elections"
 The SPÖ left behind a balanced budget after leaving the government in 2017, says Krainer. Since then, budget discipline has left a lot to be desired and the financing problems are homemade. Incidentally, this is in line with the assessments of the liberal economic Agenda Austria, whose head Franz Schellhorn is appalled that a balanced budget has not even been or will not be defined as a goal of the government.

Krainer also lamented the subsidies during the coronavirus pandemic, which had led to excess profits - "crisis profits" that the SPÖ would prefer to siphon off. "Austria has come through the crisis the worst since 2019. For the first time since 1945, per capita prosperity at the end of the legislative period is lower than at the beginning." Krainer and his comrades are now calling for a "cash crash before the election and not afterwards during coalition talks. "People have a right to know  in the voting booth what will happen the day after the election."

Magnus Brunner: "Election sweeteners would further burden the budget"
 A question to the Minister of Finance was answered promptly. Magnus Brunner argues with the difficult conditions since corona: "The Fiscal Council is right that years of crises are behind us and that this is visible in the budget. The sense of entitlement must be reduced - all institutions must take this into account. It is also clear that any election sweetener would put further pressure on the budget - I therefore appeal to all parliamentary parties not to see the election campaign as a time of budgetary irrationality."