Mikl-Leitner urges Austria’s government to pursue reforms and stimulus

Lower Austria Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner said poor polling for Austria’s governing parties should prompt federal reforms, a willingness to compromise and further economic stimulus, ORF reported on Sunday.

Polls showing the Freedom Party clearly in first place at federal level should be a call to action for the governing parties, said Mikl-Leitner, who also chairs the Austrian People’s Party in Lower Austria. “The current polls must be a mandate for all governing parties at federal level to show a willingness to reform and compromise,” she said.

She called for less bureaucracy, lower taxes and charges, and an end to “gold-plating”, meaning the national over-implementation of European Union requirements. Strengthening the principle that performance should be rewarded was also “essential”, she said.

Mikl-Leitner backs Stocker for 2029

Regarding Chancellor and Austrian People’s Party leader Christian Stocker’s comments on childcare, Mikl-Leitner said care work by mothers and fathers was essential for the country’s future. She said families’ contributions should be recognised and strengthened, with a particular focus on making family life and employment compatible.

Stocker had apologised for saying that childcare was not work, “and rightly so”, Mikl-Leitner said. The focus should now return to policy work, she added, saying there was a great deal to do.

Like Tyrol Governor Anton Mattle recently, Mikl-Leitner said she supported Stocker standing as the leading candidate in the 2029 National Council election because he was leading the federal government very well.

Call for a change in the SPÖ’s approach

Mikl-Leitner said the Austrian People’s Party must stand by its core areas of expertise and principles, including the idea that performance and hard work should pay off and support for a social market economy with environmental goals.

She said it was difficult to get an economic recovery under way with a coalition partner that favoured more government and greater redistribution, referring to the Social Democratic Party. The party needed to rethink its approach, she said, because without companies that grow and invest, tax revenues would be missing. Empty public coffers would ultimately threaten the health and social welfare systems, as well as family benefits.

Saving money was important, Mikl-Leitner said, but economic stimulus was also needed and “it is high time” for it. Among measures already implemented during the current legislative term, she highlighted lower non-wage labour costs and the active pension.

She said the federal government and Social Affairs Minister Korinna Schumann of the Social Democratic Party should urgently present a proposal for a nationwide uniform social welfare system. Lower Austria supported the move, she said, but social welfare payments should not exceed those in Lower Austria. “Social welfare should be for the weakest, not the cheekiest,” she said, adding that she saw potential for savings nationwide.

Open to direct billing for patients treated elsewhere

Mikl-Leitner said she was open to Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig’s proposal for direct billing between Austria’s federal states for patients treated outside their home state.

However, Lower Austria would first have to receive the roughly 500 million euros it currently receives less from the fiscal equalisation system for treating patients from other states, she said. A fair billing method was also needed, as Vienna’s considerably higher treatment costs could not automatically be used as the benchmark.

Lower Austria’s “Health Plan 2040+” would continue despite opposition from some quarters, Mikl-Leitner said, because it had been prepared independently of politicians by the state’s leading experts.

Mikl-Leitner rejects new pension rules

Regarding Mattle’s proposal for a new pension system allowing retirement no earlier than age 65 after 45 years of work, Mikl-Leitner referred to the pension reform adopted in 2025.

That reform includes a sustainability mechanism if the goals of raising the actual retirement age and reducing pressure on the budget are not achieved by 2030. “That should also be respected,” she said.

On compulsory military service, Mikl-Leitner said she had preferred the commission’s proposed “8+2” model. The federal government’s agreement on a six-plus-three-month solution came close to it, she said. “Yes, it is a compromise. But this compromise is preferable to simply continuing the status quo.”

Call for rapid agricultural support during drought

In response to this summer’s heat, extreme dryness and drought, Mikl-Leitner said everything possible had to be done to limit the effects of climate change and advance the energy transition.

Under Lower Austria’s climate and energy programme, carbon dioxide emissions fell by 35 percent between 2005 and 2024, she said.