Austria
Recent stories
New law aims to facilitate integration of Muslims
A new draft law (updating the 1912 law officially recognising Islam) will set up a college for the graduation of imams and lead to the employment of Muslim chaplains in the army, police and hospitals.
19 March 2006 (96 words)
Teaching of Islam in school
The Catholic Church in Upper Austria has decided to allow the teaching of Islam in one of its fifty-five affiliated schools.
19 March 2006 (51 words)
New tests for naturalisation and citizenship questioned
A draft new naturalisation law has established a restriction on naturalisation whereby parents gaining citizenship cannot automatically extend this to the rest of the family, even when their children have secure residence status.
1 January 2006 (283 words)
Opposition to Turkey
Wolfgang Schüssel, the Chancellor, has voiced fears about richer EU countries having to meet the crippling bill to finance Turkey's membership of the EU.
18 December 2004 (186 words)
Lawyers put under investigation
Two radical lawyers, Georg Buerstmayr and Nadja Lorenz, who give legal assistance to asylum seekers, and family of Cheibani Wague who was killed in police custody, have been put under investigation by interior minister Strasser (ÖVP).
1 December 2004 (99 words)
Involvement of army in prisons
Karin Miklautsch (ÖVP) the new minister of justice has suggested that the army be deployed in prisons as it is temporarily on border control duties.
1 December 2004 (78 words)
Traiskirchen mayor campaigns against refugee hostel
Fritz Knotzer, the Social Democratic mayor of Traiskirchen has handed to the interior minister a petition of 21,000 signatures against the local refugee hostel.
1 December 2004 (84 words)
Strasser links crime to asylum
Interior minister Strasser (ÖVP) says that asylum seekers are increasingly responsible for crimes and such people are 'a threat to Austria' and 'not needed' and should be deported.
1 December 2004 (109 words)
Freedom Party defeated in Vorarlberg
Haider's Freedom Party lost half of its support in regional elections in Vorarlberg held on 29 September.
20 October 2004 (69 words)
Quick to forget
A study by the Linz-based IMAS Institute has found that 10 per cent of Austrians do not know who Adolf Hitler was (an increase of five per cent since 1985).
17 October 2004 (38 words)
Authors resist Right's plan on cultural showcase
A plan by Vienna columnist Günther Nenning, which is backed by the centre-right government of Christian Democrats and the Freedom Party as well as the rightwing tabloid Kronenzeitung, to showcase Austria's greatest literature in a festival to mark ten years in the EU and sixty years since the defeat of Nazism, is being opposed by a number of artists.
17 October 2004 (149 words)
FPÖ General Secretary in racist opposition to votes for 'foreigners'
Magda Bleckmann, general secretary of the Freedom Party, in opposing granting of partial voting rights to foreigners in Graz and Linz, made racist remarks about 'Turks who besieged Vienna twice in the past' now having 'a foot in the door' and 'any African drug dealer, registered with Caritas for just five years, can vote and stand for election in Vienna'.
27 July 2004 (99 words)
Anti-Semites disrupt theatre
In June, four people disrupted a play at Vienna's Rabenhof theatre which was dealing with the events of the 1934 civil war.
28 June 2004 (55 words)
ÖVP leadership shows its anti-asylum colours
Herwig van Staa, a senior conservative (ÖVP) government minister in south Tyrol is demanding that 'sharper measures' be taken against refugees and proposes that immigrants be accommodated in 'an internment facility'.
28 June 2004 (111 words)
European parliament elections: poor showing for FPÖ
In the June European parliament elections, the Freedom Party lost four of its five seats.
14 June 2004 (26 words)
Anti-racism law is too weak
Belatedly, Austria is implementing the EU 2000 anti-discrimination and anti-racism legislation, which should have been in place last year.
28 May 2004 (142 words)
Retired colonel criticises Muslims and rejects multiculturalism
The defence ministry has distanced itself from an article on its website which describes Muslims as generally violent and united in seeking the overthrow of western society.
31 March 2004 (215 words)
The FPÖ in provincial elections
Carinthia: Social Democrats and Freedom Party form coalition government
10 March 2004 (163 words)
Styrian Nazis get suspended sentences
Eight east Styrians aged between 18 and 27 have been given partially conditional prison sentences ranging from four to 24 months for spreading Nazi ideas.
1 March 2004 (94 words)
Police fight guilty verdict in Cheibani Wague death
The court's decision was 'incomprehensible' - such was the reaction of police to the verdict of guilty in the first proceedings before the Independent Supreme Administrative Court in the death of the 33-year-old Mauretanian student Cheibani Wague.
1 February 2004 (172 words)
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