Heartless budget: Dispute in the National Council is heading!

Heartless budget: Dispute in the National Council is heading!

Österreich - On June 16, 2025, the National Council in Austria emphasized the budget week with a general debate on the budgets for 2025 and 2026. The debate shaped significant contrasts between the political parties. While the green vehemently saved savings in the climate area and in the social sector, the FPÖ rejected the draft budget as inadequate. The ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS, on the other hand, saw the draft a successful mix of consolidation and active measures to stabilize the economy.

The planned double budget provides for a total state deficit of 4.5% of GDP for 2023 and 4.3% for 2024. This deficit will be decided in the National Council on Wednesday. Accompanying this, a budget accompanying law will be adopted on Monday, which provides for a end for the climate bonus and a higher starting age for the corridor pension. The extended use of the ankle brackets can also be found in this law.

criticism and defense

In the middle of the heated debate, FPÖ club chairman Herbert Kickl described the budget design as "heartless and imaginative". He criticized the additional debts of the state despite record income and named the causes, among other things, "mass population migration" and the "Corona madness". The Greens, on the other hand, rated the budget as an expression of political discouragement and worried about the loss of jobs as a result of braking the climate.

In contrast, ÖVP Chancellor Christian Stocker emphasized that it was not a pure savings budget. He sees the budget as a turning point and an important opportunity to set the course for the future. The Neos club chairman Yannick Shetty spoke of a start of a reform path and criticized the "watering can policy". In the debate, the representatives of the SPÖ, Vice -Chancellor Andreas Babler and club director Philip Kucher, pointed out that their party was not responsible for the previous budget numbers and that they were always considered to have social compensation. Finance Minister Markus Marterbauer called the budget a "big compromise".

fiscal political framework

The budget planning 2025 was created under strict regulations. According to Article 4 (2) of the Regulation (EU) 473/2013, annual overviews of budget planning are required by October 15. The process serves to coordinate fiscal policy in the euro currency area and average the most important parameters of the budget designs. This year the overview for 2025 was decided in the Council of Ministers before the scheduled date, together with the plans for 2026.

The basis for the draft budget forms the data of the overall economic calculation of statistics Austria and calculations by the Federal Ministry of Finance. The economic forecast comes from the Austrian Institute for Economic Research (WIFO) from the spring of 2025. These comprehensive plans should not only take into account the internal financial needs of the country, but also meet the requirements of the European Commission and the Eurogroup.

The conflict over the budget leads to an intensive political argument, which should continue to increase until the final adoption on Wednesday. It remains to be seen whether the individual factions can change their position in the coming week.