Coalition crisis solved: Agreement on over -the oversight tax causes a stir!

Coalition crisis solved: Agreement on over -the oversight tax causes a stir!

An important step in Austrian politics was taken on Friday when ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS agreed to compromise to over -profit tax for energy companies after intensive negotiations. According to OE24 , the disputes with regard to this legal measure, which was affected by the new SPÖ-Finance Minister Markus Marterbauer. The compromise stipulates that energy supply companies (EVU), which achieve more than 90 euros per megawatt hour, are taxed at 95 %. This tax applies from April 1, but the Ministry of Finance has been checking all profits since January 1st.

In addition, a double budget was fixed for the years 2025 and 2026, as reported by the Kleine Zeitung . The coalition is aiming for a consolidation range of 6.4 billion euros for 2025 and 8.4 billion euros for 2026. An important component of this agreement is to increase the contribution to health insurance for pensioners from 5.1 % to 6 %. Despite the challenges, the parties will try to avoid an EU deficit procedure and have already thrown some differences overboard. This shows that the coalition is under pressure to implement its agenda quickly and efficiently.

After long negotiations, which lasted up to 17 hours a day, the party leader Christian Stocker (ÖVP) and Andreas Babler (SPÖ) have made progress, with details regarding the distribution of the ministries open. The pressure of the current political situation forces the negotiators to find solutions quickly, since the National Council election took place less than five months ago. It is also unclear whether a third party should be consulted to support the short majority in the National Council.