The third guest at this year’s oe24.TV summer talks was SPÖ leader Andreas Babler. Read the highlights of the interview with Niki Fellner and Isabelle Daniel here.
AUSTRIA: Mr. Babler, one of the SPÖ’s core issues is health. You recently explained that if your appendix ruptures, which is a real emergency operation, you would need a credit card to get it. Isn’t that completely over the top?
Andreas Babler: It was certainly exaggerated. But it shows what everyone feels in this country: that we cannot get an appointment for an operation, that we have to wait for months in pain, that there are no rehabilitation places and, above all, the feeling of being supplicants.
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AUSTRIA: How do you want to change that? How do you want to ensure faster specialist appointments?
Babler: We have proposed a concrete model where you can call a hotline and get an appointment in your region. And if that doesn’t work, you can go to the public health clinics run by health insurance companies and be assigned to a specialist there. And the third thing: that private doctors are also legally obliged to bill the health insurance company for two to three appointment slots a day.
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AUSTRIA: Let’s turn to the economy. When you took office as SPÖ leader, you announced that working hours would be reduced to 32 hours a week. Recently, you have toned that down somewhat. Are you still in favor of it?
Babler: Can I tell you a secret? The demand has been the same since my pre-election campaign: to reduce working hours bit by bit through a general collective agreement, sector-specific, over a period of time.
AUSTRIA: Would you increase the corporate tax (KÖSt), i.e. the group tax, again?
Babler: Yes, of course. We are all suffering from these high prices. And then I look at who actually made profits. Energy companies made the biggest profits in their history. The banks made 14 billion in profits during the crisis.
AUSTRIA: You are in favor of a wealth tax? Who exactly should pay it?
Babler: Specifically, the super-richest people in this country. That’s why the allowances in our model are so high. One and a half million euros for the home. And at the same time we have a lifetime allowance of another million euros per person in assets.
AUSTRIA: There have been some stray shots in your party, especially from Burgenland. Do you have as little control over the SPÖ as Pamela Rendi-Wagner?
Babler: That’s a very tough question. I would look at it like this: you will always find the same four or five people who also have a say. And I personally don’t think that’s a bad thing. It’s not always funny, but I joined the party to allow opinions to be expressed.
AUSTRIA: But you have to be fair. If you said that a woman was party leader and that she didn’t have the party under control because four or five people kept coming forward, then the same applies to a man.
Babler: I completely agree with your analysis. I am saying that things could be better.
