Government Publishes List of Subsidies

Since October 2019, a total of 4.3 billion euros have been paid out to non-profit organizations. By far the largest portion of this, a total of 3.3 billion euros, went to public universities, according to the government in its response to the inquiry.

FPÖ Inquiry to Government on Funding for Red Cross, Scouts & Co.

More than 2,100 questions over 200 pages were posed by the Freedom Party in their collective inquiry to all ministries. The party aims to denounce what they see as the misuse of taxpayers' money in the "NGO business in Austria." Payments to hundreds of NGOs and other organizations were queried. The Blues were quite selective in their choice. For instance, among the listed funding from the Federal Chancellery, the one to the Green Party Academy FREDA stands out, with 9.13 million euros being by far the largest item of the last legislative period. The statutory funding to the party academies of the other parties is missing because they were not part of the inquiry.

Among the listed funding are institutions such as universities, research institutions, the Austrian Energy Agency, and the representation network, primarily non-profit organizations from the Red Cross, Scouts to smaller associations. The FPÖ received no information regarding the also requested memberships of ministry employees in the 725 organizations. This does not fall within the execution area of the ministries, argued the departments.

Government Refers to Taskforce on Funding

The federal government referred to the established funding task force in response to the inquiry, which would subject all funding expenditures to a comprehensive review and impact assessment to use them more efficiently, accurately, and transparently in the future. At the same time, the three-party coalition emphasized that non-profit organizations make an important contribution to society. "It's not about the good work of the Red Cross and others, but about large-scale waste of money on things that no taxpayer needs," explained the FPÖ in a statement on Monday. Everything will be thoroughly examined, announced Secretary General Michael Schnedlitz. The more than 700 individual inquiries were necessary because no ministry wanted to answer the question about payments to NGOs, citing that the term NGOs does not legally exist.

Greens See FPÖ Defamation Campaign Against NGOs

This caused outrage among the Greens. "When the FPÖ scandalizes the legally provided funding to the Green Party Academy as 'NGO funding', it is nothing but pure hypocrisy. Kickl & Co. conveniently ignore that their own FPÖ Academy received 9,770,973.19 euros in the same period. The ÖVP Academy even received 16,337,551.21, the SPÖ 11,372,577.58, and the Neos 7,368,566.61," it said in a statement. That only the Green Academy was queried is "hardly to be surpassed in terms of double standards." The inquiry only serves to spread a massively anti-democratic sentiment. Previously, Green MEP Lena Schilling had already warned of a "dangerous defamation campaign against civil society" with which the FPÖ is "copying the playbook of Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán." She called for "a strong European and Austrian commitment to the protection of civil society."

ÖVP Criticism of FPÖ "Flood of Inquiries"

The ÖVP also sharply criticized the blue "flood of inquiries." They will not allow "the FPÖ to collectively drag the achievements of non-profit organizations through the mud and discredit them in the eyes of the public," said Secretary General Nico Marchetti in a statement.

(APA/Red)

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