Editorial - Prime Minister under pressure

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Starting today, the summer heat is expected to ease a bit. But for the government, the political heatwave is far from over. In recent days, it has become clear that OGBL and LCGB, together with the civil servants’ union CGFP, employer representatives, and the government, intend to return to the negotiating table on July 9. That was to be expected. But things are not quite that simple.

After one of the biggest protests the country has seen in the past 20 years, the unions see themselves in a position of strength. This is clear from the letter that the first OGBL and LCGB sent to the head of government on Monday.

With the demands they’ve set as a condition for their participation, the unions have put the Frieden-Bettel government under pressure. The government is expected to water down its position before talks on reviving the social dialogue can even begin. After all, it's a mess of their own making, the unions say.

In Saturday’s RTL television interview, the Prime Minister concretised the negotiation willingness he had already hinted at shortly before National Day, emphasising talks on equal footing. However, he failed to acknowledge that his own statements in the State of the Nation address had finally pushed the situation over the edge. Instead, he tried to counter the image of a cold-hearted CEO. Initiatives like the automatic payment of inflation and energy premiums to Revis recipients certainly deserve praise. But how this proposal is supposed to be compatible with tapping into CO₂ tax revenues – which currently serve as social compensation for rising living costs caused by that very tax – to temporarily finance the pension system will likely remain a mystery.