Please sign now!”

Please sign now!”

Mr. Lustig, what motivated you to initiate a car referendum?

Gerhard Lustig: Of course, my own experience: I have been involved in the automotive industry for decades and I also drive my own car a lot. But above all, I see what the people around me are experiencing, how they are moaning more and more because they can hardly afford their own car anymore, even though they need it regularly.

Is it really not possible today without your own set of wheels in times of climate tickets and increasing expansion of public transport?

Ask a commuter who has to drive tens of kilometers every day and would have to walk several kilometers just to get to the first bus stop. Or at least rely on the Park & ​​Ride combination. Or families with children or frail people in the household. Or go to the shopping centers on the weekend and buy the supplies for a family of several people, get furniture and other things for the household. This doesn't work without a car. And finally, people want a little trip at the weekend or on vacation and want to be prepared for anything.

What exactly are you asking for? In the text of the referendum there is something about taxes and duties being too high. Is it really that bad?

Unfortunately, yes. Austria is in second place among the most expensive countries when it comes to taxes and duties on your own car. On average, we pay 2,678 euros in taxes and duties per car per year; only Belgium is even more expensive at 3,187 euros. Neighbor Germany, for example, collects 1,963 euros per vehicle, while Spain, which comes last, only collects 1,068 euros.

Which tax screws need to be turned?

Well, it needs a balance. We currently have three consumption taxes: The NoVA was actually once the so-called luxury tax, which has otherwise been abolished everywhere, just not for cars: here it was staggered according to consumption as a “standard consumption tax” in addition to the environmental registration tax for every new car. Added to this is the mineral oil tax, which makes every kilometer driven more expensive and now we also have the new CO2 pricing. That's just too much.

And what of it has to go?

I don't want to prejudge the legislature. But it has to be more balanced, and the bottom line is that the burden has to be reduced by 25 percent. That would bring us to the level of Germany and save every vehicle owner around 700 euros per year. That's a lot of money, especially for people with lower incomes or special burdens!

So a tax relief of 25 percent, what else are you asking for?

We would like to see a repair bonus for the automotive industry, based on the model for electrical appliances. There it was used half a million times in the first year since it came into force. Why shouldn't this work for cars too? Just because the industry is already making great efforts to maintain vehicles, it cannot be punished for it. And of course you can particularly support measures that promote traffic safety or reduce consumption and pollutant emissions. Dealers and workshops could also urgently need such additional stimulus.

What else is on the wish list?

I don't see this as a one-sided wish, but rather as a suggestion to discuss things sensibly, as is now happening with the topic of internal combustion engines. It is the wrong approach to exclude from the outset a technology as a future solution in which the researchers - many of whom, by the way, come from Austria - have made enormous development progress so that a car today only emits a fraction of the emissions it did 15 or 20 years ago. And if we now talk about the year 2035, a lot will still be possible if a functioning technology that has already been well researched is not arbitrarily declared dead, i.e. turned off. I would also like to see sensible parking space management, especially in urban areas.

But that's a community matter...

And that is exactly the problem. Every municipality, and almost every district council, only thinks about their own benefit. We can see what is now happening with the expansion of the parking lot in Vienna: Now some streets on the border of Vienna are empty, but the problem is shifting to Lower Austria. And the term parking space management already shows that something is going wrong, that parking space is seen primarily as a source of income. But that cannot and must not be the case; a framework, a master plan, is needed for a sensible design of the parking spaces. Vienna has a huge influx of people, and one cannot expect that everyone today will be able to get by without a car entirely. When I read in the media that some politicians no longer see the loss of parking spaces as a possibly inevitable side effect - I would say collateral damage - when creating green spaces, cycle paths and sidewalks, but rather as a goal, then something is wrong.

What should Parliament do now?

I don't want to explain their task to the MPs and the government, but the entire administration should find the best solutions for the country and the population. This is why there is coordination between the federal, state and local governments. And this is exactly where you have to start and integrate traffic planning into a master plan, which then has to be worked through - and which cannot be changed at will after long official procedures and associated legal resolutions by ideologically motivated ministerial arbitrariness (e.g. motorways, especially the Vienna city street). I would like to initiate this debate in the House.

What is the schedule?

We are now in the first phase, collecting the required 8,400 declarations of support. But we would like to take bigger steps here: Then we need the application for approval of the referendum and a period of time allocated by the Interior Ministry for the official referendum with the aim of achieving 100,000 signatures for consideration in parliament - of course we want and expect much more.

How can I sign?

There are two ways: online using a digital signature or in person at the municipal office. The signature is done online via the Ministry of the Interior website, but you need a digital signature. But you can also go to the nearest municipal office or, in the case of magistrates, the nearest district office and sign there. Important to know: It doesn't have to be your home community. The nearest office around the corner from work works the same way. And please ask about the car referendum there, friends have already told me that not all employees there are aware of it yet. So please sign now, at any municipal office or online at www.autovolksbegehren.at