Federal President – Law on Family Benefits certified by Van der Bellen

According to the Constitution, there was no overt constitutionality, according to the reasoning of the federal president. "However, I very much doubt that this law is also in line with EU legislation," Van der Bellen said in a press release.

The President said that the European Commission announced on October 24 an infringement procedure concerning indexing. "Because of this possible contradiction with European law, Professor Ludwig Adamovich, professor of constitutional law at the chair of constitutional law, advisor to the federal president, has obtained an opinion," he said during the release of the presidential chancery.

Adamovich concluded in the APA report that "the term" constitutional "does not include respect for the law of the Union". He recommends to the Federal President "to ratify the decision of the Constitution, because from the point of view of the Austrian legal order, the decision of the law was not manifestly unconstitutional".

This recommendation was followed by the Federal President and registered the law, the Presidential Chancellery.

Meanwhile, Van der Bellen is also facing the opposition's demand not to certify a social security reform bill pbaded by the National Council last week due to unconstitutionality manifest. What he does is always open. The predecessor of Van der Bellens, Heinz Fischer, once sent back a law.

It will be like any other careful verification, it was said Monday at the request of the APA at the Presidential Chancellery. More could not be said. After the decision of the National Council last Thursday, the provision must be approved by the Federal Council before reaching the office of the Federal President.

The Social Security Act pbaded last week with a turquoise-blue majority is a stumbling block that authorizes the preparatory acts of Social Affairs Minister Beate Hartinger-Klein (FPÖ) to reform the insurance even before the basic laws are in force. For their part, the SPÖ and NEOS are storming and want to take the case to the Constitutional Court (VfGH). However, NEOS especially wishes that Van der Bellen does not even authenticate the law.

It is not so easy. The examination of the laws is in Austria in the Constitutional Court, the notarial federal president in accordance with Article 47 of the Constitution as its constitutional conformity.

However, there was already an exception: in 2008, the then federal president, Heinz Fischer, refused his signature. An amendment to the Trade Ordinance adopted by the National and Federal Councils contained a provision providing for an administrative sanction that was to come into force before the date of publication of the law. Parliament then had to repair the provision.