Five popular initiatives enter signature week in Austria

The topics of the five popular initiatives cover a broad political spectrum. Among the initiatives are "Gratis Verhütung", "Karfreitag-Feiertag für Alle", "Polizei – kritischer Personalmangel", "Transparenz im Parlament" as well as compulsory voting for National Council and federal presidential elections.

The five initiatives at a glance

The "Gratis Verhütung" initiative calls for full coverage of the costs of contraception by the public purse, as also reported by the broadcaster 5 Minuten. The aim is to ensure access to contraceptives regardless of income.

The popular initiative "Polizei – kritischer Personalmangel" picks up on concerns from within the police and the trade unions and aims to ensure sufficient staffing of the security authorities. According to the initiators, the background is a strained personnel situation that is affecting day-to-day police work.

Background: 100,000 signatures as the threshold

"Transparenz im Parlament" calls for the legislature to enshrine in law that a recorded electronic vote is the rule, as well as the documentation of the individual voting behaviour of all members of parliament on the parliament's homepage. The initiators point to the fact that the multi-million-euro renovation of the parliament also included an electronic voting system – but that this has so far not been used for recorded votes.

Other initiators are advocating compulsory voting in National Council and federal presidential elections in order to increase voter turnout. The popular initiative "Karfreitag-Feiertag für Alle" aims to turn Good Friday into a public holiday for all employees beyond the existing regulations.

Signature week procedure

Signature week ends on the 22nd of the current month. Signatures can be submitted at most district administrative authorities (Bezirkshauptmannschaften), city magistrate offices (Magistrate) and citizen offices, as well as online with a qualified digital signature. Once signature week has concluded, the Interior Ministry will review the valid supports and announce the result.

Popular initiatives have been an established instrument of direct democracy in Austria for decades. Alongside the initiatives currently underway, economic and social policy issues in particular have attracted attention beyond the 100,000-signature threshold in the past. The current signature week is therefore also seen as a snapshot of the political priorities of the population.

Supporters can sign the respective popular initiatives during signature week in most municipalities either in person on site or digitally. For in-person signing, identity is verified by means of an official photo ID and checked against the population register.