A year in the Chancellery: Karl Nehammer is satisfied with the coalition at the federal level. He regards the ÖVP’s corruption problems as an “unfair assumption”.
It all happened in rapid succession a year ago. Sebastian Kurz first resigned as chancellor and completely four weeks later. And suddenly Karl Nehammer was chancellor – the swearing-in followed on December 6. 12 months later, the ÖVP is at about 20 percent and is third behind the SPÖ and FPÖ.
“Tender attempts to develop a new profile for himself and the party were always followed by messages that made it impossible to solve inherited problems,” summarizes political analyst Thomas Hofer Nehammer’s first year as chancellor.
The chancellor himself invited to a “Chancellor Talks, where he himself took stock of his first year”. He is sure that the coalition between the ÖVP and the Greens will be judged better in hindsight than is now seen by political commentators.
„The unemployment rate is 6.2%, the lowest in 15 years.”
For Nehammer, there are three parameters to measure success and failure: these are “unemployment, economic growth, and the ratio of government debt to gross domestic product.” Nehammer is satisfied with all three categories. At 6.2 percent, the unemployment rate is the lowest in 15 years. In 2023, economic growth is also forecast to be 1.5 percent and the debt ratio – thanks to high inflation – around 85 percent. In addition, the gas storage facilities are 92 percent full and dependence on Russian gas has been reduced to 20 percent.
December 6, 2021 video: Nehammer sworn in as chancellor
Why then are the people so dissatisfied with the government? Above all, the investigative committee, which according to the Chancellor’s theory was a kind of “poison committee”, had done “brand damage to the ÖVP”. He gets emotional when it turns out that the ÖVP has a corruption problem. He spoke of an “unfair assumption”, a “general judgment” and “political agitation”. There is no systemic corruption problem in the ÖVP, you have to check every single case. “I cannot tolerate what Thomas Schmid did. All of that must be clearly condemned.” He sees Sebastian Kurz’s case in a more differentiated way.
There is still much to be done in this legislature in the field of anti-corruption. “Because distrust in institutions creates more and more opportunities for radical forces.” Austria was recently ranked 13th in Transparency International’s corruption index. “How do we get into the top 3?” Nehammer asked. The chancellor finds the possibility of a compliance officer for the federal government “exciting” and “interesting”.
Heating costs subsidy of 500 million euros
Nehammer also brought a Christmas present to the chancellor: the cabinet plans to increase the subsidy for housing and heating by 500 million euros. The target group is therefore low income, families and the middle class. The states have to take care of the processing and criteria, the money comes from the federal government. This should yield households between 200 and 400 euros.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
