Innsbruck (OTS) – The Corona crisis already devoured a double-digit billion amount from the state, and the wave of inflation unfortunately lives up to its name in this regard as well. Austria only masters the crisis mode to a limited extent.
When the corona collapse threatened in northern Italy in 2020 and many Covid fatalities were loaded onto military trucks and transported away, Austria’s politicians ultimately had no alternative in view of the building pandemic wave, if they didn’t want to blow themselves up: it came the first hard lockdown – which was then to be followed by a few more and a wild interplay of easing and tightening up to the highly controversial compulsory vaccination until the previous year. And it came from the then Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and the then Finance Minister Gernot Blümel in terms of crisis management, the sentence that was probably the most expensive in its financial consequences that was ever made in Austria: “It costs what it wants.” Supplemented by the promise that Austria even emerge stronger from this crisis.
A comprehensive analysis of the corona management is to come, the federal and state governments have announced. The Court of Auditors already presented its report this week. Aside from the enormous time pressure, the many imponderables and the extreme, including personal, burdens on those responsible, the auditors listed a whole series of problems and errors. It was regarding duplication, a lack of coordination or clarity in responsibilities between the federal government and the states, through to a lack of data and insufficient controls on cash flows. And there was plenty of it: Almost 48 billion euros were paid out in aid, twice as much per capita as in Germany or Switzerland. In terms of the density and number of tests, from which many also earned golden noses, we hung even further from the Germans.
In Austria, belief in the state has always been relatively high, with Corona it has reached clear heights, both among the population and the economy. Thanks to the state, a number of companies even earned better than before during the pandemic.
After Covid came the energy crisis and the wave of inflation with the Ukraine war. And once more the state pays out double-digit billions, including the end of cold progression and various commitments, the aid piles up to over 50 billion euros. A lot makes sense here too, especially support for hardship cases and the socially disadvantaged. With various grants (and incidentally also the ECB money glut in recent years) inflation has been and is even being fueled. In addition, it is probably clear to everyone that public aid on credit (since Corona in a total of around 100 billion euros!) is also limited. Hardly anyone is talking regarding repaying the billions in debt in these times of crisis anyway.
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