VIENNA – Constitutional court overrules right-wing government’s welfare reform

The government’s welfare reforms would have entailed linking benefits to language levels, reducing cash support to families for every additional child, and an obligation of social public agencies to share personal client data with authorities. According to the court, the changes would have discriminated against migrants as well as multi-child families. In addition, it would have breached Austrian data protection law.


The reform was a flagship project of Austria’s last government, a right-wing coalition which had ruled only two years bfore the so-called Ibiza scandal brought it down in May this year. Other laws from that era were recently overruled by the constitutional court as well, such as a security regulation dubbed the “Federal Trojan Horse” that would have allowed authorities to tap into phones.


The Austrian People’s Party, senior partner in the last government and set to become senior partner in the next, stated that they “absolutely cannot comprehend” the overruling, but will accept it. The Greens, whose coalition negotiations with the People’s Party have entered into the final stage, welcomed the overruling, saying that this was “a good day for the poorest of children.”


(Philipp Grüll | EURACTIV.de)



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