The Viennese SPÖ now wants to facilitate access to citizenship, especially for people with lower wages. A corresponding decision was taken on Saturday at the so-called “Vienna Conference”.
The reason for this target group is that they often fail because of financial barriers. A shorter waiting time is also conceivable for Michael Ludwig (SPÖ). ÖVP and FPÖ are furious.
When it comes to citizenship, Ludwig, as he puts it himself, wants to “let social considerations pour in”. One in five in Austria and one in three in Vienna do not have the right to vote and this is often because the financial and bureaucratic barriers are too high.
Professional groups such as nurses and cleaning staff
Especially the passage according to which one must have 933 euros per month after deduction of all fixed costs is impossible for certain professional groups. These are often the ones running everything now, such as nurses or cleaning staff. Of the latter group, 90 percent do not have Austrian citizenship. For unskilled workers, this is even 80 to 90 percent.
For the mayor, it is “socially unjust” that well-deserved people or investors should get citizenship much more easily than people in low-wage sectors. Ludwig would not say how much would be an appropriate income limit from his point of view. But it must be realistically achievable.
Waiting time reduced to five years
As for the waiting period for citizenship, the mayor can imagine reducing it to five years. A reduction of the allowances is conceivable for him at Vienna level. Ludwig appealed to the federal government to take such steps here.
The mayor does not want to shake the fact that citizenship is a prerequisite for participating in federal and state elections. However, he thinks it is conceivable to also grant third-country nationals the right to vote at district level – analogous to the rule that already applies to EU citizens.
ÖVP against the plans
In the ÖVP, however, one does not think of following the red ideas. Integration Minister Susanne Raab (ÖVP) said in a broadcast that the citizenship rules would not be relaxed.
“Provocation of a special class”
Viennese FPÖ leader Dominik Nepp described the SPÖ plans as a “special class provocation”: “While gangs of asylum seekers have street fights, rape women and we are currently faced with a flood of illegal social migrants, the mayor can think of nothing else, these people also to give them Austrian citizenship and let them vote,” he explained in a broadcast.
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.
