FPÖ – Kolm: “Austria is becoming impoverished because of too much state

Austria as a place to work and do business suffers from the highest energy costs, the highest taxes and duties, and the highest density of regulations. In addition, the state has expensive bureaucracy and the black-green government pursues massive economic control with an inefficient and ineffective funding system. For the economist and liberal member of the National Council Dr. It is therefore no surprise to Barbara Kolm that, according to Statistics Austria, domestic prosperity has been declining for five years: “Now there is also the threat of an EU deficit procedure, which would mean that the state administration would be under EU guardianship. This can only be averted if government negotiators send a plausible budget schedule to Brussels in mid-January 2025 – with the total consolidation requirement being 24 billion euros within four years. However, the loser traffic light threatens to pass on this debt disaster with new burdens on the population, which would further damage our economy and people’s prosperity!”

After almost five years of black-green politics, Austria is at exactly the point in time when debt-taking must finally come to an end and be replaced by spending discipline and supply-oriented economic policy. “One of the most important federal policy homework is a structural reform with a reduction in expenditure and a reversal of the failed economic management pursued by the government. Because prosperity does not come from government spending and more and more regulations, but from personal motivation and entrepreneurial profitability in a largely unhindered private sector,” explained Kolm. Austria has many hard-working, competent people who, as employers or employees, have civic self-confidence and would strive for more freedom and relief from the state.

The FPÖ’s economic policy would therefore like to “shine the spotlight on employees, top performers, companies and industry” and ask how the burden on them can be relieved in their daily working lives. “It is precisely from this perspective that there should be no new taxes, that income and corporate taxes must fall and that de-bureaucratization is needed. Equally necessary is an option to opt out of compulsory membership in the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Labor. Tax revenues are higher than ever, Austria suffers from a spending problem and not a revenue problem. The aim of a government must therefore be to relieve the burden on people and save on expenses. There is potential for this in the double-digit billion range, and the EU deficit procedure could also be avoided by reducing spending,” the liberal MP continued and gave a few examples, such as stopping illegal mass immigration, which costs enormous amounts of money Payments to the EU Peace Facility to finance Ukraine’s arms, a reform of development aid, on which around 1.8 billion euros were spent last year alone, or the limitation of the entitlement to Minimum security/social assistance exclusively for Austrian citizens.

“We now need the courage to reform and trust in our own population. The restructuring of the state apparatus and its budget is not an end in itself, but a necessary intermediate goal in order to unleash a new economic upswing for the benefit of all Austrians and for a good future!”, explained NAbg. Dr. Barbara Colm.