Fight for Austria's budget: Schledlitz warns of EU deficit procedures!

Fight for Austria's budget: Schledlitz warns of EU deficit procedures!

Wien, Österreich - fpö general secretary Michael Schledlitz has had a sharp criticism of the political statements of the SPÖ vice-chancellor Andreas Babler, whom he made in the Ö1 "Journal". Schnedlitz sees a representative of a "loser spamper" in Babler and accuses him of concentrating primarily on maintenance and postshacher. He warns that the policy of the SPÖ under Babler Austria could control خطرًا in an EU deficit procedure, which would have far-reaching consequences for the country's budgetary sovereignty and may lead to higher interest rates on government bonds.

A central concern of Schneedlitz is Babler's defense of the nomination of the former ÖVP Chancellor Karl Nehammer, whom he criticizes as motivated to party politics. In addition, Schledlitz expresses concerns about the personnel of the designated ÖFB President Josef Pröll, who is also suspected of driving political interests. In addition, Schneedlitz Babler criticizes a lack of commitment as a residential minister for tenants in Austria and sees the strong rental increases in Vienna as a failure of the city government.

budget crisis and economic challenges

The country's budget situation is under pressure, the estimated budget -like amounts to around 12 billion euros, which presents the government with great challenges. The Hanseatic cities and the coalition parties have forced these financial bottlenecks to initiate savings of 6.39 billion euros this year and over 2 billion euros in the next year, which will save a total of 8.7 billion euros. Chancellor Christian Stocker described the negotiations between the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS as extremely challenging and emphasized the dependence of the project implementation on the financability of these savings.

The business forecasts promise little good: for the third year in a row, an economic decline is expected, which could also burden the financial situation. Economic researchers warn that the planned savings measures are not sufficient to avoid European deficit procedures. The fiscal council predicts a deficit of 4.1% for this year and 3.8% for the coming year. Despite these ominous predictions, the coalition is optimistic of being able to comply with the EU requirements of 3% deficit.

look at the budget development

Budget development for 2024 and 2025 is considered challenging. The federal government's net financing needs from January to September 2024 are expected to be 15.4 billion euros. Particularly noticeable are the increased expenses, which have increased by 13.1 % compared to the previous year and are primarily due to higher pension expenses and the new financial equalization.

In addition, weak sales tax development and the new crisis measures have further tightened the financial situation. The fiscal council and the BMF expect an increasing burden: The forecasted Maastricht deficit for 2024 is between 3.3% and 3.9% of GDP. This will increase the public debt rate to 79.3% of GDP, which could not only be financial stumbling blocks, but also challenges for European integration.

Overall, Austria's political and economic situation is a complex structure in which strategic decisions and consistent financial policy are of the utmost importance in order to master the challenges of the future. The more critical discussion about budget policy is not only observed by political actors, but also by experts.

For detailed information and other developments, we recommend that the reports on OTS , Profile and Parliament