The chairman of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP), continues to believe in the introduction of electronic voting in the House. “Here too, the time has come, but it is a decision of the parties,” he said on Monday when presenting the conference balance sheet for the period 2022/23. Since moving into the renovated house, Sobotka has also noticed an improvement in tone.
With regard to the figures presented, there have been 20 meetings with agenda items in the past period, plus seven special meetings. In addition, there were 30 assignment sessions, making a total of 57 plenary sessions. In time, that is a total of 282 hours and 30 minutes, summed up the Parliamentary Directorate. But there were also 188 committee meetings, totaling 600 hours and 53 minutes. A total of 174 laws were passed.
The future will be electronic
Sobotka again emerged as a “great friend” of an electronic voting system, which has already been technically implemented in the new house. This is common practice in almost all European parliaments. Sobotka is convinced that the benefits are also obvious. “This is a discussion for the future and we will continue to initiate it,” said the chairman of the National Council with conviction.
58 calls to order
The downsides of parliamentarianism were also noted. In the past period there were 58 calls to order. For Sobotka, this is “the sharpest tool we have”. So less outrage and more calm would be appropriate, even outside the National Council.
More referendums than ever before
And the citizens also had their say more often than before in the new Supreme Court. For example, 21 referenda have been handled (22/2021: 5), thanks to electronic registration. 3,650 written parliamentary questions were asked by the parties, which the president considers a “very important tool” for the delegates. And the number of visitors has increased fivefold compared to before the renovation. In the first half of the year there were 250,000 guests.
The number of gallery visitors has also increased sharply, according to the balance sheet. How to prevent – as happened recently – people from entering the empty government bank, look further. But that shouldn’t be the case in the future: “We definitely don’t want to put up barriers that prevent people from entering the house,” says Sobotka.
AI, medicine and climate change
The plans that will be implemented from the autumn are also ambitious. For example, Parliament should pay much more attention to inclusion. The range of foreign-language trips is also being expanded. In the coming period, Sobotka will mainly focus on raising awareness of artificial intelligence. It continues with areas of focus such as medicine, defence, copyright and climate change.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
