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TAGS: OPRC KPAO AU
 
SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: August 6, 2007 
 
 
Vice-Chancellor Rejects Early Tax Reform 
 
¶1. In an interview with independent daily "Der Standard," Vice 
Chancellor and Minister of Finance Wilhelm Molterer has expressly 
rejected the idea of bringing forward the proposed tax reform. He 
referred in this context to the OeVP goal of uniting 
"sustainability, tax reform and zero deficit."  He responded to a 
respective demand from Fritz Neugebauer from the VAAB, a partial 
organization of the OeVP which represents laborers and employees. 
Neugebauer urged for tax relief for the middle class as well as a 
more intense discussion of the possibility of financing the social 
net through capital revenues. 
According to Molterer, the economy is not likely to slow down before 
2009/10 - therefore the need for a tax reform does not arise before 
that. That s not the only dismissive answer, which the 
Vice-Chancellor has given to political proposals from his party and 
the SPOe recently. In his interview with independent daily "Der 
Standard," Molterer also rejected a proposal of Christoph Leitl, 
head of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, to the effect that the 
present limits to the income people, who are at the same time 
beneficiaries of child allowance, can earn should fall. Also, 
Molterer sees no necessity for young fathers to take a month off 
work immediately after the birth of their children, arguing that the 
new child allowance regulations already provided for the possibility 
of a six-month absence of fathers from their jobs. In the interview, 
Molterer also referred to an issue which the Styrian OeVP has 
brought up:  the introduction of a majority voting system. Such a 
fundamental decision could only be made with the consensus of all 
parties, Molterer pointed out, adding that "I don't see this at the 
moment." 
 
Vranitzky Advocates Majority Voting System 
 
¶2. In an interview with independent daily "Der Standard," former 
Chancellor Franz Vranitzky opted for the introduction of a majority 
voting system. He referred to the need for "courageous political 
decisions" which have currently slowed down in Europe by the 
necessity for long-drawn out negotiations to find a political 
consensus, the former Chancellor said, adding that "we need new 
majority systems." 
In the interview with independent daily "Der Standard," former 
Chancellor Vranitzky, who led a grand coalition government for more 
than ten years, refers to the major difference between the grand 
coalition of his time and today:  "We still had a number of common 
interests." Vranitzky criticizes the eternal quarrelling going on in 
the present coalition on major social or educational issues - saying 
that they must be 'grueling' to the citizens. However, he also 
insisted that attempts to create a new system must not be dominated 
by a 'winner-takes-all' mentality - one would have to find a way to 
make a potential new majority voting system "minority-friendly,' 
thus protecting the smaller parties, who must not be destroyed by a 
'steamroller system.'" 
 
Rice Can Be Satisfied 
 
¶3. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has just returned from her 
Middle East trip and overall, she can be satisfied with the results, 
analyzes Oe1 radio morning news. Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert 
and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet in the West Bank 
where Abbas has withdrawn after the Hamas victory. The two political 
leaders will discuss a joint basic agreement for a two-state 
solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "There is no doubt 
that Olmert and Abbas are seeking a rapprochement," concludes Oe1 
radio morning news. [Oe1 radio morning news] 
Polish Coalition Faces Breakdown 
 
¶4. After weeks of quarrelling, the boss of the Farmer's Party 
Andrezej Lepper has withdrawn his cabinet ministers. The government 
is now at the end of the rope. Lepper accused Prime Minister 
Jaroslaw Kaczynski of being responsible for the breakdown of the 
coalition and announced that he would start an all-out fight against 
the Prime Minister. In early July, Kaczynski had dismissed Lepper 
from his positions as Vice-Prime Minister because of an alleged 
shady real estate deal, of which, however, he never presented any 
proof. [Kurier, p. 4] 
 
Karzai Meets Bush 
 
¶5. Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with US President George W. 
Bush at Camp David for the beginning of two-day consultations on 
Sunday. Aside from the hostage crisis and the overall worsening 
security situation, the two Presidents discussed the high number of 
civilian casualties in the fight of coalition troops against Taliban 
and terrorists. Before his departure for the US, Karzai, in an 
interview with CNN, again rejected concessions to the kidnappers, 
saying that, while he wanted to do all he could to ensure a safe 
release of the hostages, he did not intend to set actions that would 
"encourage the kidnappers." 
It is expected that President Bush, in the continuation of the talks 
on Monday, will urge his Afghan colleague not to give in to the 
demands of the kidnappers of the 21 South Korean hostages, writes 
centrist daily "Die Presse." In the meantime, the South Korean 
government advocates an agreement with the kidnappers, but admitted 
that it has no effective means to influence the decision of the 
Afghan government. The situation of the hostages is dramatic, 
reports the daily, referring to an interview of the "Korea Times" 
with a Taliban spokesman who said that 16 of the 21 hostages are 
ill, two of them seriously. Meanwhile, charges have been raised that 
the Pakistani intelligence service was involved in the kidnappings, 
but these were rejected by Pakistan. 
 
License for Spying 
 
¶6. 41 Democrats have made it possible:  The US authorities now may 
wiretap suspicious telephone calls and emails abroad that use US 
communications systems without a respective judicial decision. A law 
to this effect was passed on the weekend by the House of 
Representatives, after the Senate had already given the green light 
on Friday. 
According to independent daily "Der Standard," the new amendments 
modified the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which, 
until amended, provided for a panel of judges to decide about the 
legitimacy of wiretapping actions. The court had judged recently 
that no wiretapping operations could be conducted without its 
consent - which was the reason the President opted for its reform. 
The Republicans in Congress welcomed the new law, claiming that it 
enhances national security and "closes a loophole in our 
surveillance laws," as the minority leader in the House of 
Representatives, John Boehner put it. According to the head of the 
National Security Agency (NSA) Mike McConnell, the new measures are 
necessary to "protect the citizens from attacks that are currently 
in planning and are intended to cause major losses to the US." The 
new regulations will be in force for six months for the time being, 
reports "Der Standard." 
 
Big Money With War 
 
¶7. Centrist daily "Die Presse" lists the current record profits of 
the US weapons industry. Due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as 
well as the generosity of the US administration when it comes to 
spending money on homeland security and supporting its allies, major 
US weapons companies were able to increase their profits by between 
15 and 34 percent, thus making weapons deals a booming business - as 
 
it had not been since the Cold War. 
Centrist daily "Die Presse," in its cover story on the enormous 
profits of the US weapons industry, refers to the most recent 
promises of the Bush administration to Middle East countries to 
supply them with armament, - a move which will guarantee top profits 
for the US weapons industry for years to come. In addition, the 
daily points out the record high in projected military spending for 
2007 - 533 billion dollars - almost half of the world's military 
expenses. And that is not even counting the sums that other 
ministries, such as the Department for Homeland Security or the 
Department for Energy spend on security measures - together, these 
expenditures amount to 987 billion dollar, estimates Robert Higgs, 
of the think-tank "Independent Institute." Apart from the beneficial 
effect on the US economy, the weapons deals secure millions of jobs. 
This is also the reason why Congress has a vested interest in 
supporting the flourishing weapons industry - the respective 
companies have subsidiaries in the entire US and many voting 
districts. The companies, on the other hand, reward good behavior on 
the part of representatives by giving generous donations to the 
election campaigns of parties and politicians, explains "Die 
Presse." 
Kilner