ORF should be able to collect 789 million euros from us Austrians from January 1st, so far every concept of fee-based TV has been hidden from the public what will happen to this huge sum. So far it is only clear that the new ORF tax will have to be paid immediately at the beginning of the year – so for all households paid over 250 euros in January, the wave of protest will be huge.
The TV funding idea of the Greens, which the OVP helped to decide, is not popular: in February this year, despite massive advertising of the black-green project in some media, most Austrians still did not agree to this forced TV funding. voted against. Before the vote in parliament, worried Austrians also sent more than 5,000 letters of protest to the House of Representatives – all of which were ignored: nothing changed in the text of the law since January 1, ZiB2 employee Armin Wolf, comic The series with Homer Simpson, accompanied by Barbara Karlich for Trash-TV and TV-Vetterfosch, who constantly warned of climate disasters, collected even more Austrian households – regardless of whether the ORF program was watched or not.
While the ORF Stars and the Greens, who also make up the board of the ORF Foundation Council, expect this controversial TV tax to stand firm, political experts have long seen it differently: social media forums are already buzzing that the upcoming National Council election ORF would have to win in 2024 to overturn the mandatory levy.
And eXXpress has now asked what the parties’ position is on this:
The Greens are clear: they are clearly in favor of the so-called household levy, they recently passed the legal text in parliament with the OVP.
The position of NEOS is surprising. Party leader Beate Meinl-Risinger sent this statement to eXXpress: “No, we are not in favor of the domestic fee. In the event of government involvement, we will implement a committee reform and ultimately depoliticize ORF.”
Eexpress could not find any information from SPO about the current status of the parliamentary group – however, so far, Social Democracy ORF was in favor of the budget levy. However, Parliament voted against the ORF tax because it was “not socially graded”.
On the other hand, the FPO’s position on ORF funding is very clear. FPO leader Herbert Kickl: “We liberals will end this meager ‘ORF contribution’ immediately and without replacement. Because it is nothing more than an unfair mandatory tax with which the black-green federal government burdens every household and every company.” whether they also consume ORF or not.
And Kickal adds: “People who are already suffering from record inflation due to a complete failure of government are digging deep into their wallets to finance a media re-education institute that is rife with ‘leftist’ ideology” And those in whom there are are privileged knights with lavish pay and luxuries.”
In the event of an election victory, the FPO would be certain: “A liberal chancellor would change this decisively and advocate for streamlined broadcasting that would require no compulsory taxes or compulsory fees and would be driven by objective reporting rather than politically one-sided paternalism”. “
Of course, eXXpress also asked the Chancellor to make a statement on this extremely explosive topic, which will also have a profound impact on the voting behavior of many Austrians. However, till the time of going to press, there was no statement from the OVP boss.
So now it is quite clear which party can count on voters who definitely do not want to move the mandatory ORF tax – regardless of whether the National Council elections are held in April or in the autumn of next year.
