Referendum for basic income fails significantly in Austria

In Germany, the debate about an unconditional basic income is in full swing, and the SPD candidate duo Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken have discovered the topic for themselves. In Austria, there is little interest: there a referendum for such an income has clearly failed.

In the past seven days, only about 70,000 people signed the request, as the Austrian Ministry of the Interior announced. The referendum does not make it into parliament - it would have required at least 100,000 signatures.

According to the Austrian "Standard", only six other initiatives had previously failed to get parliamentary advice. Only three out of a total of 45 referendums in Austria since 1964 therefore performed worse. The result is preliminary, final figures will not be announced until mid-December.

1200 euros per month should have been financed by finance tax

The referendum was initiated by Peter Hofer from Graz. He demands that every Austrian citizen receives 1200 Euro per month. According to him, the performance would have been financed by "a financial transaction tax amounting to 0.94 percent of all financial transactions in Austria".

The idea of ​​an unconditional basic income in Europe has not yet been established. In Switzerland, a referendum on the introduction of such a payment of 2,500 francs per month was clearly unsuccessful in 2016. In Germany, the mood is shared on the subject.

In Austria, in turn, according to media reports Hofer also benefited from a basic income. According to the "courier", he recently started his twelfth degree and lives from 800 euros per month.

The treatment in Parliament would not have meant the implementation. Although according to "Standard" in 1982 about 1.4 million people in the initiated by the conservative ÖVP desire against the construction of the Vienna Conference Center, this was still established.