On Tuesday, the black-blue coalition in Lower Austria presented the new housing and heating subsidy. Austrian citizens, EU citizens and asylum seekers are entitled – third-country nationals look through their fingers. The anti-inflation support has therefore been criticized as a “racist construction”. The ÖVP rejects this.
The subsidy was approved at the state government meeting on Tuesday with votes from the ÖVP, FPÖ and SPÖ. A total of 85 million euros is available for this. According to provincial governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP), Austrian citizens and “those equal to them” – i.e. EU citizens and asylum seekers – with their main residence in Lower Austria have the right to apply. Asylum seekers and detainees do not receive a subsidy.
But third-country nationals who do not have the right of asylum, who have their main residence in Niederösterreich, who work and who pay taxes, are also not eligible for the rent and heating allowance. A “racist construction” was chosen here. The human rights organization SOS Mitmensch strongly protested against the exclusion of non-EU citizens. This increases social inequality.
“Damage to our own population”
“Anyone who excludes part of the population from subsidies feeds poverty, especially among families with children,” said Alexander Pollak, spokesman for SOS Mitmensch, who sharply criticized the state government’s approach. “For racist motives” they harm their own population. Five percent of the population in Lower Austria would be excluded from the subsidy, Pollak refers to figures from Statistics Austria.
The Lower Austrian People’s Party dismisses the criticism as “unreasonably underhanded”. Because numerous subsidies in Austria are only available to citizens or peers, such as the Carinthian child benefit. Regulations accepted elsewhere “are labeled racist in Lower Austria,” says VPNÖ’s regional manager Bernhard Ebner SOS Mitmensch.
“Actually not right”
Lawyer Wilfried Embacher, who specializes in immigration law, also criticizes the scheme. According to him, the unequal treatment is “not objectively justified” because “everyone needs to warm up,” he wrote on Twitter. Non-EU citizens “are allowed to help fund it, of course they are happy to take their money in exchange for discrimination,” Embacher said.
Vorarlberg and Vienna, for example, show that things can be done differently: there, all people with their main residence in the respective state receive the “heating cost subsidy plus” or the “energy bonus”. The condition is always the need of the household. In Niederösterreich, the maximum gross annual income for single-person households is EUR 40,000, for multi-person households EUR 100,000.
Farmer contradicts himself
If the regulation adopted in Lower Austria remains unchanged, excluding taxpaying third-country nationals, FPÖ provincial councilor Udo Landbauer contradicts himself: “Anyone who works and maintains the social system should be released from politics”, he posted on Facebook. on Tuesday.
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.
