Under increasing pressure from ÖVP state leaders from Lower Austria to Styria, relief for electricity customers is apparently getting closer. Chancellor Karl Nehammer commissioned Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (both ÖVP) to examine a variant for cost limitation.
This is regarding the proposal by the head of the economic research institute, Gabriel Felbermayr, for a cap on the electricity bill, newspapers reported online yesterday. Nehammer rates this idea as “interesting”, the Federal Chancellery informed the “Wiener Zeitung” and the “Kleine Zeitung”.
“No bans on thinking”
“I have always said that there is no ban on thinking when it comes to relieving people of high energy prices,” said the head of government yesterday evening, pointing the way to a compromise. Finance Minister Brunner should first “check carefully” and make calculations with the WIFO boss regarding the effectiveness of his proposal and the costs of the plan. The result will be discussed in the crisis cabinet.
Felbermayr has advocated that, in view of the skyrocketing prices, households should be given part of the electricity bills – i.e. that they get more favorable conditions for part of their electricity requirements, but have to pay the high market prices for the rest. Nehammer continues to reject direct intervention in electricity prices, as demanded by the SPÖ.
Increasing pressure from countries
The dispute over reducing energy costs for households came to a head last week. After the Federal Chancellor had defeated the SPÖ’s demand for an electricity price cap in the National Council, Lower Austria’s governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) called for plans from the federal government.
Yesterday, the Styrian Governor Christopher Drexler (ÖVP) also demanded a course correction. Like the mayor of Vienna’s SPÖ, Michael Ludwig, he campaigned via the “Wiener Zeitung” for a “dialogue” between the federal government and the federal states and the energy industry and noted that there should be “no dogmas” in crisis situations.
