After criticism from SPÖ leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner, the coalition has continued to defend the aid package it has announced – and they want to go even further. Treasury Secretary Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) is considering elevating the abolition of cold progression to constitutional status. This would require a two-thirds majority in the National Council. Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) is considering further relief for tenants.
Brunner said in an interview with Ö1 “Mittagsjournal”, which aired Saturday morning in excerpts, that one would see “what the majority situation is” and whether the opposition parties – “which have always called for the abolition of cold progression” – then stay there. also in “when it comes to casting the vote”. “We want it to be permanent. That is our goal.”
“Give the people their money back”
When asked why he assumes this Turquoise Green-planned measure will not fuel inflation any further — if people have more money to spend — Brunner referred to expert advice. They would confirm that this was “the right way”. It’s time to abolish the cold progression in times of high inflation – “that we give people the money back,” the minister said.
Kogler thinks of relief for tenants
With inflation in mind, Vice Chancellor Kogler is considering further relief for tenants. However, these should not come through a rent ceiling, but through rent subsidy. “We are in talks with the federal states,” the Greens boss told the “Standard” (Saturday edition).
According to Kogler, direct interventions are only possible with reference value and category rents – but these would only affect a small part of the market. It is also a constitutional problem “if you intervene constantly”. “Therefore, it is probably a question that needs to be solved through housing assistance, i.e. assistance for those who need it,” Kogler says. In addition to housing subsidies, “the federal states are busy collecting vacancy taxes on vacant apartments”. That has “a certain guiding effect, and we as a government would like to support that”.
Kogler emphasized that housing assistance is the responsibility of the states. “But if the aid is so great that countries credibly say they can’t handle it, then we can fund something from the federal side,” he suggests. “Talks are underway.”
Rendi-Wagner: “Package is false labeling”
SPÖ leader Rendi-Wagner had previously criticized the anti-inflation package launched Wednesday evening by the Turquoise-Green coalition in the Council of Ministers in ORF’s “ZiB2” on Friday evening. She mainly identified weaknesses in the social balance. Top earners – such as yourself or Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) – would benefit from this package of almost €6000 by 2026. A pensioner with only 1200 euros in pension has only a little more than a quarter of it. “That’s not right, that’s not fair.” The reception package is also largely not a relief, but merely a refund of taxes already paid: “That’s a misnomer.”
NEOS boss Beate Meinl-Reisinger also sees the package “in part” as a “misleading package”, as she said in “Club 3” of “Krone”, “Kurier” and “profil”. For example, an automatic system would be missing if cold progression were to be abolished. She also criticized the lack of accuracy, although she was in principle “glad” that “there is now a package”.
Source: Krone
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