Image: Werner Kerschbaummayr (FOTOKERSCHI.AT / KERSCHBAUMMAYR)
Mayor Klaus Luger (SP) dropped the bomb at today’s municipal council meeting. According to Luger, the federal government is planning to accommodate up to 300 refugees in the former Hotel Ibis near the main train station. The first asylum seekers are to move in in the summer, and use is provisionally planned until the end of the year. The city has no say in this. Luger, who is strictly opposed to the plans, is therefore calling on the federal government to prohibit the responsible BBU (Federal Care Agency) from renting the former hotel.
Luger sees “overwhelm”
The reasons are well known: the city fundamentally rejects mass quarters. Caring for 300 young men would be overwhelming, especially for this urban area. Not only the directly resident population would reject this mass accommodation. The opening “ssignals ignorance of fears and objective problems,” says Luger, who warns of a “radicalization of the mood”.
Negotiations since December
The plans are not new. It was already known at the end of the previous year that the owners of the hotel, the Viennese group of companies Breiteneder, had offered this house to the federal authorities as refugee accommodation. In December, Luger offered to negotiate with the company about the purchase of the building by the city of Linz.
Broad front of rejection
Criticism also comes from other factions. “Everything that includes more than 100 people is a large district and should therefore be rejected,” says the green club chairman Helge Langer. Deputy Mayor Martin Hajart (VP) says that the plans are a clear “no go”. The ÖVP renewed their proposal that the city should acquire the hotel and build a senior center there. The Neos are also against the Grand Quarters. It is known that Especially in the station district, the question of safety is always a big topic for the people of Linz. There should be no lack of transparency.
FPÖ request as a trigger
The Linz Freedom Party is also resolutely opposed to the plans. “300 asylum seekers in the station district are absolutely irresponsible and unacceptable to the people of Linz. Such a large asylum quarter would clearly exacerbate the existing focal point of the main train station and Volksgarten. The people of Linz rightly expect more security instead of new large quarters in the middle of the city center,” says City Security Councilor Michael Raml.
GWG to acquire hotel
The Liberals are also in favor of the city, specifically the GWG, making the owners a new offer to purchase the property. There are many design options: from a senior center, apartments to offices.
In order to prevent the plans for the district, a cross-party and cross-regional solidarity is needed, Raml said. “If the ÖVP actually cares about security, then Minister of the Interior Gerhard Karner must put his foot down and prevent the plans of the federal welfare agency. I expect Integrationslandesrat Hattmannsdorfer to do everything to dissuade his party colleague from this irresponsible plan to turn Linz into a second Traiskirchen. Instead of the required police officers, Karner sends us asylum seekers.”
Source: Nachrichten
