VIENNA (Reuters) – The three biggest centrist parties in Austria’s parliament have agreed to form a new coalition government, sidelining the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) even though it came first in September’s parliamentary election.
Below are some key policies in their 211-page joint government programme, published on Thursday.
Each of the parties added items of particular importance to them. The conservative People’s Party has a strong focus on immigration and security, which are also central to the FPO, while the Social Democrats want to tax the wealthy and companies more heavily and the Neos call for tax cuts and pensions reform.
IMMIGRATION
– Immediately and temporarily stop family reunification for refugees, seek to change the European Union’s family reunification rules
– Support “innovative concepts with third countries to prevent illegal migration in the area of protection and return”
– Oppose taking in more asylum-seekers from elsewhere in the European Union through an EU relocation or resettlement programme until the protection of the EU’s external borders is fully functional
– Create greater legal powers to seize asylum-seekers’ belongings upon arrival, with the exception of personal effects, to cover some of their maintenance costs such as accommodation
– Make clear that asylum-seekers have no hope of becoming Austrian citizens unless they learn German and integrate
– In the event of an increase in asylum figures, Austria would reserve the right to stop accepting asylum claims
SECURITY/FOREIGN POLICY
– Fully support the principle that there should be no peace negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine’s participation, denounce Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine
– Work on a gas diversification strategy, with an emphasis on security of supply, resilience, affordability and decarbonisation
– Seek a formal end to Turkey’s European Union accession talks, instead find a new basis for bilateral relations between Turkey and the bloc
– Make it a crime to spread Islamist propaganda, introduce tougher criminal legal measures against “political Islam”
ECONOMY
– Seek to avoid an EU excessive deficit procedure by achieving savings of more than 6.3 billion euros this year and 8.7 billion euros next year
– Implement pension reforms and incentives for the elderly to work so that savings of 1.45 billion euros are achieved by 2028, rising to 2.9 billion euros by 2031
– Scrap value-added tax exemption for solar panels
– Increase taxes on tobacco and gambling, and raise fees for government services such as issuing passports or driving licences
– Scrap one third of the amount government spends annually on countering the effect of inflation on income tax brackets known as “cold progression”
– Increase pensioners’ social security contributions to 6% of their pension as of June 1 of this year from 5.1% currently
– Improve tax treatment of overtime
COMPANIES
– Increase a levy on banks, which currently brings in about 150 million euros a year, so that it brings in roughly 500 million euros this year and next, and roughly 200 million euros in the following years
– Extend and adjust windfall taxes on power and fossil-fuel companies so that they bring in 200 million euros in 2025 and the following years
(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Dave Graham and Frances Kerry)
