In Germany, recipients of state benefits are required by law to cooperate with the social welfare authorities: anyone who does not cooperate, for example by refusing to accept assigned work opportunities, can have their benefits reduced or cancelled.
But that is only theory: in practice, hardly anyone is sanctioned if they refuse a job offer. In recent years, the number of sanctions against citizens’ allowance recipients who turn down assigned job offers has plummeted: since 2007, there has been a significant decline of 90 percent.
While more than 183,000 sanctions were imposed in 2007, the number fell to just 21,730 in the period from September 2023 to August 2024. But even the new regulations, which came into force in March 2024 and make it possible to completely cancel two monthly payments for so-called “total refusers”, have not yet led to more sanctions.
A key factor in the decline in sanctions is a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court in 2019, according to which cuts of more than 30 percent of benefits are incompatible with the fundamental right to a “dignified minimum standard of living.”
The “pandemic” and a temporary sanctions moratorium in 2022 also contributed to fewer sanctions being imposed.
Finally, with the Citizen’s Allowance, which came into force on January 1, 2023, a paradigm shift was officially achieved. Since then, the federal government has fundamentally relied on cooperation rather than punishment and views cuts as the “last resort”. No one should be surprised by the result.
In Austria, however, the FPÖ is not having any of this. It is also breathing down the necks of the other parties. The government under ÖVP Chancellor Nehammer therefore felt compelled to take a tougher stance towards “refugees” last year.
Since then, asylum seekers in the Alpine republic have been required to take part in “values courses” and to make themselves useful through social activities. Those who refuse to do so have their pocket money reduced.
The new rules have been in force since July. The Vienna Interior Ministry has now drawn up an initial interim report. According to the report, 2,650 people completed around 183,000 hours of community service in 2024; 72 percent of asylum seekers fulfilled their obligation, while the remaining 28 percent had their payments reduced.
Vorarlberg has already enshrined the obligation to work in law, Upper Austria is about to do so, and Burgenland has also followed suit with a change in the law that has been in effect since Christmas.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) is satisfied with the “step in the right direction.” The work requirement, the implementation of a benefit card and the mandatory values training send a clear signal: “tough but fair.”
The AfD can learn a lot from the FPÖ, as leader Herbert Kickl’s clear course is paying off. Like the AfD in Thuringia, the FPÖ became the strongest force in the National Council elections, but is not “allowed” to govern.
Federal President Van der Bellen did not want to allow Kickl to form a government. Instead, Nehammer from the ÖVP was supposed to set up a kind of Alpine traffic light coalition with the SPÖ and the left-liberal Neos.
The coalition negotiations have now collapsed, and Nehammer has resigned as ÖVP leader.
The prospect of new elections is causing nightmares for the cartel parties. During this stalemate, the FPÖ once again gained considerably in the polls.
Depending on the polling institute, 35 percent or 37 percent of Austrians would now vote for their sister party. That would be a lead of over 15 percent over the second-placed ÖVP. The “firewall” has simply become a dead end in which the ÖVP is shrinking.
The party owes these historic highs for the FPÖ to the consistent leadership of Herbert Kickl, who does not curry favor with those responsible for bad policies, but forces them to fail because of themselves.
It is all the more important that the AfD does not repeat the FPÖ’s mistakes and remains steadfast in the face of any temptation to dwarf itself as a junior partner for a poisonous power option.
The FPÖ has learned from the bitter experience of the deadly embrace during Sebastian Kurz’s brief participation in the government.
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