2023-10-18 22:00:29
Issue from Thursday, October 19, 2023
Innsbruck (OTS) – Finance Minister Magnus Brunner has presented what is expected to be the last budget of the turquoise-green coalition. Recently, the government reached unexpected agreements. After years of crisis, exhaustion is setting in.
Maybe Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) is simply not a rousing speaker. Maybe it’s the exhaustion following years of pandemic, inflation, war in Europe. Perhaps the coalition has simply worked itself out a year before the next National Council election. Or there was simply tension outside because the government had already published key points of its budget in advance. The bottom line is that yesterday’s budget speech in the National Council was a compulsory exercise without any highlights. What remained were Brunner’s central messages, which he conveyed to men and women in different versions: No to new taxes and a “fully comprehensive mentality” that leads one to expect an all-round service from the state. Yes to performance, hard work and commitment. A commitment to relief (keyword “cold progression”), eco-transformation and strengthening the business location.
The Greens didn’t applaud everything Brunner said. They are still satisfied because they can finance prestige projects, from extensive funding for the phase-out of oil or gas heating to new positions in the judiciary to the climate ticket as a birthday present from the state for all 18-year-olds.
At the start almost four years ago, the ÖVP and the Greens advertised their coalition as the “best of both worlds”. However, the two parties have not yet found a common narrative, a year before the next National Council election.
There is no big announcement regarding how they want to lead the country out of the multiple crises. The latest compromises that the ÖVP and the Greens found following much back and forth in the past few weeks do not change this. Freedom of information, energy cost subsidies, heating replacement, initial personnel decisions that have been blocked for a long time: Contrary to their reputation, the coalition can make progress when it wants to.
Even Brunner mightn’t find a common thread in the 90 minutes of his budget speech. He does call for sustainability. However, the Maastricht deficit and new debt are stagnating at a high level. The finance minister no longer even mentions a time period for a zero deficit. Brunner also sees a need for reform when it comes to pensions. But he doesn’t want to be active.
Perhaps the Ministry of Finance has simply realized that a different government will be responsible from 2025 anyway. What the coalition now wants to set in the financial framework until 2027 can then be changed with a simple decision.
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