VIENNA: Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker has raised the idea of creating a state investment fund to help protect the country’s pension system and secure future payments.
In interviews with Krone, oe24 and Heute, Stocker said profits from companies in which the state holds shares could be placed in a special fund. The money would then be invested over many years and used to strengthen the public pension system.
Stocker said Austria needed to think about pensions in a more complete and long-term way. He pointed to Scandinavian countries as possible examples for the proposed model, as reported by ORF News.
“We could invest and manage part of what we earn from our state owned companies, perhaps half in this pension fund,” Stocker told oe24. He later estimated that such a system could receive around €700 million every year.
The chancellor said the steady flow of money could gradually create a stronger financial reserve for future generations. Rather than relying only on current public revenues, the state would use profits from its own investments to support the pension system.
Stocker also called for a constitutional ban on political Islam. He said the government needed to use “clear language” when discussing the issue and stressed that Austria could not accept discrimination between people based on their religious beliefs.
“Men and women are equal in our country,” Stocker said. He argued that when religion is used for political purposes, the state must oppose it firmly. His proposal would require the ban to be introduced through a constitutional law.
The plan has been criticised by the opposition Freedom Party, or FPÖ. Party Secretary General Michael Schnedlitz described Stocker’s demand as an “unconvincing political spectacle”.
Schnedlitz said the FPÖ had been submitting parliamentary proposals for a ban on political Islam for years, while Stocker’s Austrian People’s Party, or ÖVP, had repeatedly voted against them.
He claimed that the chancellor’s credibility on the issue was “below zero” and challenged Stocker to support the FPÖ’s proposal at the next session of the National Council.
