Austria's ÖVP election plan focuses on migration, family and taxes

The conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) of Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Friday announced an election program focused on tax cuts, a plan to fight irregular migration and better support for families.

Nehammer rang in the campaign for the upcoming elections this year with a speech, saying: "This year 2024 is the year of decision."

He made his announcement in front of around 1,500 party supporters at the exhibition hall in Wels, a small town at the foot of the Austrian Alps.

The chancellor outlined his ideas in an 82-page "Austria Plan." They include lowering the starting tax rate from 20% to 15%, abolishing all taxes on overtime and a €4.5 billion ($4.9 billion) programme to expand childcare across the country by 2030.

ÖVP suggested grandparents should be able to take time off work to look after their grandchildren, according to the proposal.

This is a big year for elections in Austria, as voters go to the polls to elect

In Austria, citizens will elect the National Council, the lower house of parliament, two regional parliaments, local leaders and the European Parliament.

The ÖVP has still not come to terms with the resignation of former chancellor Sebastian Kurz in autumn 2021, polls say. They show the struggling conservative party with only 23% of the vote. Under Kurz it was backed by around 35% of voters.

This is about even with the Social Democrats, but behind the leading right-wing FPÖ, which polls at almost 30%.

The ÖVP used the meeting to distance itself from FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl.

"He is a failure," ÖVP Secretary-General Christian Stocker said, referring to Kickl's record as former interior minister.

With a video, the ÖVP recalled that Kickl was the first politician in Austria to call for a lockdown at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, while the right-wing populists later positioned themselves as opponents of the coronavirus measures.

The fight against irregular migration also plays an important role in the conservative party's plan.

It states that new overall solutions are needed in the European asylum management system by 2030. In addition to deportation and processing centres abroad, the party wants to investigate whether correctional facilities abroad could be used.