"Krone" commentary

Bank levy: FPÖ has scored a hit …

(Bild: Viennareport)

The FPÖ has scored a hit with the bank levy. However, the issue is not new; in the last coalition negotiations it was one of many proposed tax increases that were "blown out of the water". The banks were bailed out by the taxpayer in 2008, so is the levy justified?

The ÖVP and the banks are up in arms: what the banks had borrowed from the taxpayer had been paid back. Generous loans were also repaid - albeit more in the real estate sector. One person who surfed this wave was the Tyrolean speculator, whose name is strikingly reminiscent of a cocoa drink. He wanted to buy the entire republic. Small and medium-sized businesses, which bear the greatest tax burden, had a harder time with loans.

Property prices rose faster than wage levels, with the result that housing became speculative and affordable housing even became a "foreign word". Politics and banking have moved away from the needs of the people.

The Kunstforum in Vienna also belonged to a bank. Once open to the public through exhibitions, it fell into the hands of the aforementioned speculator. He wanted to rent it out to the Republic again at a profit. Everything went wrong and the building had to be sold again. Contrary to all promises, it will no longer be open to the public.

Whenever the previous fixed stars in the political firmament are lost and the center of the population is no longer represented, major changes are on the horizon.

Aurelius