Vienna (AFP)
It is a staple of Austrian restaurants, just like the Schnitzel or the Apfelstrudel: the cash payment makes resistance in one of the most prosperous economies in Europe, which even considers making it a constitutional right.
At the time of virtual currencies and regulations by smartphone, the project may seem anachronistic: engrave in the constitution the right to pay in cash.
This is what the conservative ÖVP party of former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz proposed this month, campaigning for his re-election in the legislative elections planned for the end of September: "being able to use cash is a basic requirement of an autonomous existence, "said the 32-year-old former prime minister.
Far from being received with skepticism, his proposal allowed the far-right party FPÖ, which ruled with the ÖVP until May, to recall that it had been the first to introduce a constitutional amendment to protect the cash payment. The Social Democrats outbid by demanding more distributors in the countryside and the abolition of withdrawal fees that some operators impose.
But cash aficionados are not confined to rural areas. In Vienna, capital and popular tourist destination, there are many shops, cafes and restaurants to refuse card payments.
"In Austria, mentalities change slowly," says Victoria, in her thirties, a staff member of a downtown restaurant, "Weinschenke", which serves hamburgers to a trendy crowd while posting at the entrance that the establishment "accept" only species ".
For tips, a very codified ritual in Austria, "the liquid is better than the card", she argues. The young woman herself says she prefers to pay in hard-nosed "stubborn" dollars.
- private sphere -
According to financial law professor Werner Doralt, Austrians are particularly committed to protecting their privacy.
"If I do my shopping and register exactly (via card payment, ed) the amount of alcohol I buy, it is an interference in my private sphere," said professor emeritus of the University of Vienna.
According to a study by the European Central Bank, 67% of the total value of point-of-sale purchases in Austria in 2016 was in cash, compared with 27% in the Netherlands.
Even in Germany, another country where cash is king, this rate was only 55%.
Specialist in economic psychology, scholar Erich Kirchler, puts forward the idea that Austrians and Germans, because of their experience of authoritarian regimes, have a sharper awareness of the threat posed by the state when it becomes all-powerful . "In such circumstances, the efficiency of public institutions becomes a danger," he says.
The theory is echoed by Philipp Klos, owner of a coffee shop in a central district of Vienna. Militant cash, he sees in cash a condition sine qua non of his "freedom," he says.
On the menus of his establishment, a paragraph is devoted to the defense of species: "Without cash, we become totally vulnerable.A totalitarian state would have unlimited power over us," reads.
- schillings under the mattress -
According to a recent survey conducted by ING Bank in 13 European countries, as well as in Australia and the United States, the Austrians were the most reluctant to abandon cash payments. This perspective was considered acceptable by only 10% of them, compared to an average of 22% in the other European countries surveyed.
Another proof of this immemorial attachment: almost 18 years after the introduction of the euro, many Austrians continue to discover at home schillings, the old national currency. Austria is part of the handful of eurozone states that continue to trade these old schillings in euros.
Until this year, a bus of the National Central Bank even circulated throughout the country during the summer to offer this exchange service. Nearly 19 million schillings (1.38 million euros) were collected this year.
However, sanctuary of the cash payment in the Constitution, as the conservatives want, would have only a symbolic dimension, experts have argued: Austria is a member of the euro zone where it is the ECB that has the last word on monetary policy.
© 2019 AFP