In addition to the seven from May, there will be two from June 20th to 27th aimed against corona measures. From September 19th to 26th, two anti-measures requests and “Black Voices” can be supported again. The registration week for “right to housing” has not yet been fixed.
Referendums have been booming since support for both phases – initiation and registration week – was made much easier in 2018. Now the 6.4 million voters (all Austrians over 16 who are in a voter register) can also sign online using a mobile phone signature and no longer just at their main residence, but at every municipal office in Austria.
Vaccination skeptics use referendums heavily
Since 2018 (including those from May) there have been 25 referendums, which is 40 percent of the 64 since 1964. The direct-democratic instrument established at the time has been heavily used by critics of measures since the Corona year 2021. Requests against the (currently suspended) compulsory vaccination – like the two from May – always made it over the 100,000 mark, which is necessary for treatment in the National Council.
The two that will be available in the week after next are also relevant: “No compulsory vaccination”, supported by the Viennese lawyers Florian Höllwarth and Alexander Scheer – and “Resignation of the federal government” by the Upper Austrians Elias Mühlbauer and Martin Kaser, who sharply criticize all corona measures in the justification .
Another two will be available in September: “Abolish COVID-19 measures” (Representative Robert Marschall) and “Redress the COVID 19 measures”, an initiative by the vaccine-skeptical gynecologist Christian Fiala.
Referendum against racism
Between September 19th and 26th, voters can also get involved in another topic – namely the fight against racism. Noomi Anyanwu advocates for this with her request “Black Voices”.
The “Right to Housing” initiative by Montafoner Helmut Bitschnau is still on hold. He has collected at least 8,401 signatures required for initiation and submitted the application, but the Home Office has not yet set a registration week. A further 49 groups of initiators are currently trying to initiate the process – this too is record-breaking.
The next goal of all proponents is 100,000 signatures – so that the National Council has to deal with their concerns. Since 1984, 53 (of the 64) initiatives have achieved this. As a rule, however, the concerns were not implemented or only partially implemented. The most successful referendum to date had no effect whatsoever: in 1982, the ÖVP did not succeed in preventing the construction of the Vienna conference center, even with 1,361,562 signatures (that was 25.74 percent of those entitled at the time). The deadline solution is still valid today, although its opponents were able to mobilize almost 900,000 Austrians (17.93 percent) in 1975 – and are therefore still in third place today. The second most successful initiative (in terms of votes), the 1997 anti-genetic engineering referendum signed by 1.2 million (21.23 percent) had more effect.
The most successful request in recent years was the “Don’t smoke” proposed by the Medical Association and Cancer Aid in 2018. It was supported by 881,692 or 13.82 percent in 2018, putting it in 8th place. The demand for a smoking ban in restaurants was also defeated in parliament by the turquoise-blue government majority, but with the bursting of this coalition in 2019, smoking in bars became a thing of the past then forbidden.
Source: Nachrichten
