A referendum calling for the immediate deportation of asylum seekers who have committed a crime whilst in Austria has surpassed the threshold of 100,000 votes required for parliament to consider the proposal, Wiener Zeitung reports.
It is now incumbent upon the legislature to debate making changes to its laws that would allow for such deportation processes to be expedited.
Initiated by the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ)—by far the most popular Austrian political partyーone week ago, the referendum had at the time of writing already over 197,000 Austrian votes in favor.
FPÖ politician and Lower Austria’s State Parliament President Gottfried Waldhäusl, together with FPÖ Lower Austria leader and Deputy Governor Udo Landbauer spearheaded the initiative.
The referendum came as Austria, with its nine million-strong population, saw a tripling of the number of asylum applications filed between 2021 and 2022, jumping from 39,930 to 108,490—the largest year-over-year percentage increase of any EU member state.
Along with that increase in immigration, a spike in violent and deadly crime, often involving knives, followed. Austria’s capital of Vienna has been particularly affected.
On May 8th, Viennese FPÖ leader and City Councilor Dominik Nepp remarked that “Vienna’s cycle of violence is apparently spinning faster and faster.”
“It is high time that ÖVP (Austrian People’s Party) Minister of the Interior [Gerhard] Karner acts and provides more police presence in Vienna,” Nepp added while reserving much sharper criticism for SPÖ Mayor Michael Ludwig:
Through the undifferentiated welcome policy of the Viennese SPÖ, which Ludwig practices ad infinitum, the door has been opened for the influx of illegal and foreign criminals. Instead of finally ending the incentive policy in Vienna and putting pressure on the federal government to immediately deport these criminals, Ludwig is thinking about softening the citizenship application process. This unacceptable immigration policy is to blame for the fact that the Viennese can no longer walk the streets without fear.
Launched under the name “Fortress Austria,” the FPÖ’s referendum sought to put a stop to the worrying trend, stating it was “necessary to put the interests of one’s own country above those of Brussels.”
In contrast to Austria’s government under Karl Niehammer of the Christian-Democratic Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), the FPÖ highlighted the need to “regain self-determination and sovereignty when it comes to matters concerning asylum.”
