2023-05-05 09:33:41
In order to combat high inflation, the SPÖ is calling for an inflation summit. If the government does not comply, party leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner wants to use parliamentary instruments: “From urgent questions to the federal government to a special session to a motion of no confidence in the entire federal government,” she announced at a press conference. In the fight once morest inflation, a failure by the government “can no longer be brushed aside.”
Rendi-Wagner denounced the increased inflation rate in April. This has fallen in almost all European countries. The extent of the inflation crisis was largely homemade, she saw a “wrong policy of one-off payments worth billions”. The government would have rejected all effective measures once morest inflation and all the SPÖ’s proposals on the subject. On the other hand, rents were increased, with the government still “pouring fuel on the inflationary fire”.
Instead of the car summit initiated by Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP), what is urgently needed is an inflation summit in which experts and the social partnership should be involved. The SPÖ wants to discuss the abolition of VAT on staple foods, a rent cap and the withdrawal of the increase in benchmark rents, as well as an anti-cost-of-living commission. According to Rendi-Wagner, this would be necessary in order to introduce reliable price controls and should have the option of imposing sanctions. The party leader and SPÖ business spokesman Christoph Matznetter referred to Wifo boss Gabriel Felbermayr, who had recently described the rent brake, which the government had not decided, as an “opportunity”.
As a member of the EU, Austria is in a single market and in a currency union, explained Matznetter. If Austria – “as it is now” – has the highest inflation rate of the developed Western European EU countries, this would jeopardize the performance of the Austrian economy. Thousands of jobs would be at risk. If the price level has solidified, a return is “insanely difficult”. It’s “like driving a car”: “If you drive the wrong way and are going too fast, it doesn’t help that you brake harder followingwards when you’re already in the ditch.”
The victims of inflation are people with insufficient income, small businesses and the self-employed. Shareholders in large corporations would benefit. In addition to the ÖVP, Matznetter also criticized their coalition partners. The Greens are “not able to press the stop button”. If they agreed to the SPÖ’s proposals in parliament – and “just blow up the government” – they might give hundreds of thousands the opportunity to cover their own housing costs.
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