The coalition agreement published by the conservative People’s Party and the far-right Freedom Party is built around a vigorous protection of national identity.
A new “blue-black” coalition is in power in Vienna, 17 years after the Freedom Party’s entry into government provoked an outcry across Europe. This time, the right-wing alliance between the new Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his conservative People’s Party, and the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) under Heinz-Christian Strache, has created far less of a stir.
The two partners sealed their agreement by publishing a programme whose backbone is the defence of national identity, built around 10 major principles such as Heimat (which roughly translates as “homeland”), Sicherheit (security) or Verantwortung (responsibility).
Despite the far-right’s presence, the coalition is “pro-EU” – but with a tough stance on migration and migrants. It has a green environmental agenda and a populist touch in favour of referendums.
Here are the main points of the 182-page document.
Europe
- Allegiance to Europe
- No referendum on an exit from the EU
- Against further European integration
- More power for national governments
- Opposition to Turkey joining the EU
- Develop and pacify relations with Russia
Law and Order
- Introduce more severe minimum sentences for violent and sex crimes
- Make the struggle against political Islam a government priority
- Secure the country’s borders to stop illegal immigration and secure the European Union’s external borders
- Improve the functioning of the police force, notably with the creation of 2,100 new posts
Public administration and the workplace
- Increase the maximum number of hours in the working day from 10 to 12
- A selective immigration policy, facilitating only the entry of people qualified in sectors of the economy which lack Austrian workers
- Simplify Austria’s public administration
- Merge several health and social security bodies to cut costs
Education
- Improve the results of competence tests in basic subjects such as reading, writing and mathematics
- Send children to school only if their German is good enough
- Reduce welfare benefits for parents who fail to respect obligations such as ensuring their children’s presence in class or making sure they express themselves in German
- Re-establish rights to enrol at university
Spending
- Reduce public spending to finance tax cuts
- Reduce business charges and taxes by for example exempting profits reinvested in Austria
- No new wealth or inheritance taxes
- Enshrine in the constitution a framework for public debt
- Encourage taxes on online transactions with foreign companies, both at national and European level
Social policy
- Prevent new arrivals from accessing numerous social services in Austria during their first five years in the country
- Raise minimum benefit payments to 1,500 euros a month for families and allocate “reduced” payments to refugees
- Cut benefits for refugees and transform cash payments into benefits in kind, to minimise the country’s attraction
- Reform the public pension system to adapt it to the ageing Austrian population
- Grant families a tax reduction of 1,500 euros per child per year
- Scrap a planned law to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, due to come into force in May 2018
- Beef up controls on the public broadcaster ORF
- Commit to building a third runway at Vienna airport
Environment
- Commit to producing 100% renewable electricity by 2030, compared to 33% now
- Keep a ban on nuclear power stations
- Draw up a long-term strategy to ditch fossil fuels
- Introduce an action plan to ditch glyphosate
Direct democracy
- Support the holding of a referendum when a petition gathers 900,000 signatures
- Recognise CETA, the trade agreement between Europe and Canada (no referendum)