After the breakdown of coalition talks with the ÖVP, the SPÖ has expressed disappointment. “We were willing to take responsibility for our republic until the very end” it said on the “X” account of the party by Andreas Babler on Saturday evening.
We were prepared to continue negotiations over the weekend to make a responsible coalition between the ÖVP and SPÖ possible, after the exit of the Neos, the party wrote. The ÖVP was not willing to do so. “It has been clarified that Nehammer does not get a negotiating scope from his party” the SPÖ said.
The breakdown has cost Austria many months, the Social Democrats lament. “Time in which we should have worked on the future of Austria.” The ÖVP has wanted to fill the “huge budget hole it has created” from the working population and pensioners, criticized the SPÖ.
This is the third time in a row that the government of Chancellor Karl Nehammer has refused to make adjustments to pensions, the second time in a row to demand salary cuts for all teachers, police, caregivers, and federal army employees, and 20% savings in the healthcare system, the SPÖ said. Additionally, the retirement age was to be increased to 67 years.
“The salary and pension losses would have weakened the purchasing power. The healthcare system would be further hollowed out. The waiting times for a doctor’s appointment in Austria are already getting longer every year, and the two-class medicine is on the march” the Social Democrats criticized.
“If everyone has to contribute, this also applies to those who have particularly profited in the past years. A government that does not look at the fair distribution of the burden endangers the solidarity among the population. This cannot be our goal” the SPÖ emphasized.