Sheeder and Regner presented the campaign
©APA/EVA MANHART
The SPÖ, which bills itself as “the voice of the people, not the lobbies,” is counting on “Europe first” in the upcoming EU elections. At the opening of the election program and posters and the campaign headquarters at the SPÖ federal office, leading candidate Andreas Schieder appealed to create green and social jobs in Europe. He reiterated that only one vote for the SPÖ could prevent the shift to the right on June 9.
Sheeder, who wants to be first in the polls, worries about the “overheated” political climate. As an example of this, he cited the attack on German SPD politician Matthias Ecke by hanging election posters. But the posters of the FPÖ, currently leading the polls, are also “out of style” and the Freedom Party is known for “fake news”. The ÖVP, whose top candidate Reinhold Lopatka has actively distanced himself from the FPÖ, lacks credibility in this regard.
Schieder said the SPÖ wants to “positively shape Europe” and support industry under the slogan “Europe first instead of made in China”, bringing back jobs and investing in innovation Above all, the EU should not be dependent on China. The SPÖ wants to set up an “EU transformation fund” that will finance investments in measures to reduce CO2 emissions. Private jets are to be banned from European airports and an express train system is to be established to connect European capitals.
Electricity produced with renewable energy should be protected from “artificially induced price increases,” the plan says. Instead, energy prices should be based on average production costs. They want to hold big corporations and the super-rich accountable – effective taxes on corporations, windfall profits, digital companies, financial transactions and especially large private assets. Supply chain legislation needs to be tightened;
Evelyn Regner, second on the list, said that where profits are made, they should also be taxed. The SPÖ wants to abandon the principle of unanimity in the Council of Europe on tax policy. Sheeder said individual member states cannot accept “tax loopholes”. The SPÖ wants the right of initiative, i.e. the right to introduce draft laws to the EU Parliament.
Social Democrats also want “affordable living in a social Europe” without austerity. Finally, as stated in the manifesto, public investments should not be made at the expense of the welfare state. There should be immediate EU aid for families most affected by poverty, as well as a “right to a warm home” and a ban on switching people off from gas, electricity or district heating. “Public assets” should not be privatized – groundwater, for example, cannot be owned.
If you want to stop dying in the Mediterranean, you have to work together across Europe, Scheider said of ideas in the asylum area. The SPÖ wants standardized asylum procedures and a solidarity-based distribution of asylum seekers. Return agreements must be negotiated with countries of origin and transit, and asylum applications can be submitted to “EU asylum centers” outside Europe. The EU should actively participate in military conflict resolution, and neutral Austria should not participate in an EU military
Regner also emphasized the EU’s importance to women’s rights. Here, the SPÖ’s plan focuses, among other things, on abortion, which should become a fundamental right in the EU. In addition, member states and Austria must completely decriminalize it.
