The starting position is extremely difficult. Three very different parties are supposed to come up with a budget for two years together, whereby they have nothing to distribute, but the bottom line is that they actually have to save more. Last week, the negotiations between Chancellor Christian Stocker (ÖVP), Vice Andreas Babler (SPÖ) and Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger (Neos) as well as the budget experts who were brought in took a correspondingly long time. The three parties have been trying to agree on the guidelines for the double budget for 2027 and 2028 since Monday. There was repeated talk of tough negotiations, and those involved even briefly warned that the project could fail. Due to each other’s resistance, of course.
