“Never understood” – inflation in the National Council: accusations instead of solutions

The special session on inflation in parliament hadn’t even started yet when Statistics Austria provided the following evidence of the need for action: according to a survey, one in three complained of loss of income by the end of 2021 – before the massive inflation of recent weeks and the war in Ukraine.

Rendi-Wagner calls for more wage cuts and higher pensions
SPÖ leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner accused the turquoise-green government of “sleeping” rather than helping, and once again called for payroll tax cuts, higher pensions and further tax cuts. An email she quoted from a minimum pensioner caused the meeting to escalate early: Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) called this “imaginary”, which in turn infuriated Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek (SPÖ): “You should be ashamed of yourself ‘ she bellowed at Nehammer .

ÖVO refers to emergency measures of the past few weeks
The ÖVP’s response to the accusations was, broadly speaking, to list the emergency measures of recent weeks, from the energy cost bonus to the increased commuter allowance – and again to criticize the fact that in Vienna, which is ruled by the SPÖ and NEOS, too little is being done against the high inflation, the keyword fee is increasing.

The mayor of Vienna is like “the Sheriff of Nottingham” when it comes to raising money, said ÖVP club boss August Wöginger. And: Higher wages, Wöginger told the SPÖ, would push prices up further, “but you never understood that, nobody tells you that in the Renner Institute (the SPÖ party academy, pay attention)”.

Kickl: “They both belong deselected”
And FPÖ man Herbert Kickl simultaneously attacked turquoise-green and red: The federal and state governments are “crisis winners” that are doing too little against inflation. Kickl: “They both belong deselected.”