About the ÖVP Party Manifesto
The basic tenets of the program are and remain, according to Kurz: no new debt, a lower tax burden and the fight against illegal immigration.
On September 1, the conservative ÖVP announced a program of “100 projects” for Austria that had emerged from internal party talks. Details are still to be unveiled, but party chairman and former chancellor Sebastian Kurz described the ÖVP manifesto with the following words: “We want to continue on our path. The track we shaped so far, our values, our view of Austria – all that was approved and endorsed in our conversations.”
The basic tenets of the program are and remain, according to Kurz: no new debt, a lower tax burden and the fight against illegal immigration. Further policy ideas include implementing the fiscal reform planned by the previous government, introducing statutory nursing care insurance and supporting the development of new technologies like hydrogen cells to counter the threat of climate change.
Kurz also wants to establish a task force to scrutinize potential abuse and misuse of the social security system by immigrants. After indexing child benefits last year for EU citizens working in Austria whose children live abroad, the ÖVP now also wants to investigate pensions payments and health care payments going abroad. The ÖVP frontrunner also wants to continue the fight against “political Islam” and radical groups like the far-right, white nationalist Identitarian movement, by establishing a documentation center and making it easier to dissolve clubs and associations.
Finally, Kurz expressed his opposition to the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, which in the current form, he said, “would significantly damage our farmers.” In interviews, he highlighted the importance of consuming local and regional products – also as an environmental measure.
