Photo: Hanna Fasching
Austro-German heiress Marlene Engelhorn is setting up a citizens group to decide how to give away €25m (£21.5m) of the fortune she inherited from her grandmother. Invitations have been sent to 10,000 randomly selected Austrian citizens, and from those who respond, 50 will be chosen. They will meet with academics and civil society organisations, with childcare and interpreters available if required. Travel costs will be pais and participants will get €1,200 for each weekend they attend. "If politicians don't do their job and redistribute, then I have to redistribute my wealth myself," she said. "Many people struggle to make ends meet with a full-time job, and pay taxes on every euro they earn from work. I see this as a failure of politics, and if politics fails, then the citizens have to deal with it themselves." Austria does not have an inheritance tax.
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