With opposition & Vienna – energy crisis cabinet meets on Monday

An important part of the deliberations will be the current status of the energy supply in Austria, according to a broadcast from the Chancellery. Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) will provide an overview of gas storage and diversification and infrastructure projects. No new measures will be announced on Monday.

The crisis cabinet consists of Chancellor Nehammer, Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens), Minister of Finance Magnus Brunner (ÖVP), Minister of Energy Gewessler and Minister of Economic Affairs Martin Kocher (ÖVP). The meeting on Monday afternoon at 4 pm will be held in a much larger group this time. On the opposition side, SPÖ boss Pamela Rendi-Wagner, NEOS boss Beate Meinl-Reisinger and FPÖ MP Dagmar Belakowitsch will come to the chancellery, as the political groups said.

Social partners and the city of Vienna also invited
The social partners are also present, for example from the trade union, the chief secretary of the ÖGB, Ingrid Reischl, participates. The president of the provincial governors, Viennese mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ), has also been invited. He saw his demand for a “price peak” fulfilled on Saturday and again argued for a cost cap in energy supply and a price cap for basic foodstuffs. Ludwig will be represented in the appointment by Alderman Peter Hanke because he is participating in an international conference. In any case, the city of Vienna will come up with its own proposals, it said.

Ludwig was already with Nehammer on Friday and, according to the Chancellery, the conversation was about the status of gas storage and the federal government’s considerations for an energy price brake. “We are doing everything we can to provide the country with electricity and heating in the coming months and winter,” Nehammer promised. This requires “the concerted effort of all actors, across party and state boundaries.”

“It is still uncertain how long and how much Russian gas will be supplied to Europe,” Vice Chancellor Kogler emphasized in the broadcast. That is why you should do everything you can to prepare yourself as well as possible for the consumption-intensive winter months. “That means storing, saving, diversifying and replacing as much gas as possible.” To further promote the efforts, it is important that different actors have a common level of information. In addition, there will be an exchange about implementation concepts for an electricity price brake.

FPÖ speaks of “show”, GB demands relief
The FPÖ does not have much hope for the date: it is feared that the meeting “is nothing but a show by the unplanned and cold-blooded government”, the blue secretary-general Michael Schnedlitz said in a broadcast. The ÖVP and the Greens have so far relied only on “their well-known show politics” – but nothing has arrived with the citizens except alms, Schnedlitz criticized and once again called for new elections.

The ÖGB renewed its demands for the nomination on Monday: an energy price cap for households is necessary, not an electricity price brake “sometime in the fall,” Reischl said. In addition, the electricity price must be decoupled from the sharply rising gas price as soon as possible. The measures are financed by taxing the excess profits of the energy companies. In addition, the ÖGB is pushing for a rent brake, a temporary suspension of VAT on food and a reduction in the tax on mineral oil on fuel. A new, powerful pricing commission should also be established.