Fiscal Council chief warns:

“Fearing to death only lets the FPÖ win”

Fiscal Council head Christoph Badelt hopes for urgently needed reforms despite the collapse of the coalition.

(Bild: APA/ROLAND SCHLAGER)

The economist and head of the Fiscal Council, Christoph Badelt, is calling for urgently needed reforms even after the failure of the coalition negotiations. A new government must give the impression that it can put Austria back on the road to success.

"Krone": The Neos are pulling out of the government negotiations due to a lack of willingness to reform: So there will be no major education, pension, federalism or tax reform. Is this due to Austria's real constitution? 
Christoph Badelt: Of course, I don't know what really happened in the negotiations. But major reforms are urgently needed in these areas. Now we have obviously ended up back in the previous real constitution. Let's take the tax reform: if there really was substantial relief for the labor factor, then that would already be a success. The decisive factor will be how the reduction is financed. It would be linked to new revenue, or to spending cuts, or it would put a strain on the budget: but we can't afford the third option.