Amazon Tax Draws Enemies for Austria’s Most Popular Minister

May 30, 2026, 5:00 AM UTC

For a finance minister tasked with eliminating billions of euros of spending and stabilizing Austria’s budget, Markus Marterbauer has so far managed to avoid becoming the scapegoat for his country’s economic woes.

The mild-mannered former labor union economist consistently tops polls as the most popular minister in the three-way coalition government of Chancellor Christian Stocker — a centrist patch-up of conservatives, social democrats and liberals that’s defied skeptics with its stability since it was formed more than a year ago with the stated aim of keeping the far right out of power.

But bickering around plans to halve Austria’s sales ...

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