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“German versus municipal housing”: With this demand, the ÖVP Vienna wants to strengthen integration in municipal housing.
With around 2,300 community buildings and more than 220,000 community apartments, the city of Vienna is one of the largest property management companies in the world. Hundreds of thousands of Viennese make their home here, making municipal housing a popular and at times hotly contested setting for the election campaign.
In the spring of 2019, the main turquoise candidate, Finance Minister Gernot Blümel, moved to Vienna’s urban residential complexes as part of the ad campaign “Those who work must not be stupid.” At that time the main objective was to promote minimum income reform (which the city of Vienna has not yet implemented), the ÖVP is now making clearer demands in the election campaign.
The turquoise electoral program for the October 11 Vienna elections will not be officially unveiled until the start of the election campaign on Thursday, but the first focal points are leaked. And show what the ÖVP understands with its “decent center-right politics”.
“No community apartment without knowledge of German”
The fact that the ÖVP does not see a big difference between community housing and integration can be seen most clearly in the demand that the allocation of community apartments in the future be linked to a test of German knowledge. “Mastering the German language is a prerequisite for integration to begin and take place at all. The city of Vienna has not drawn the necessary conclusions from this fact for too long. Too many people with a migration background hardly speak the German language, although have been here for a long time We demand that proficiency in the German language (level B1) be a prerequisite for the award of a community apartment. The model here is the city of Wiener Neustadt, where the experiences have been very positive. Federal integration agreement should also be mandatory. The command of the German language in community building prepares ghettos, promotes coexistence and integration “, says the electoral program of VP that “Today” it is available in excerpts.
Furthermore, the Vienna People’s Party (ÖVP) calls for more fairness and justice in the allocation of common apartments and advocates the introduction of a category of “social need”, which should speed up the obtaining of a common apartment.
FPÖ: “blinking to the right is not enough”
The FPÖ views Blümel’s demand as “neither fish nor meat”. “Blinking to the right is not enough,” reacts the spokesman for the FPÖ Federal building Philipp Schrangl. The turquoise advance also does not go far enough for the Vienna Freedom Party: “When I look at the development of municipal housing, knowledge of German and an integration agreement are not enough to solve the problems,” commented FPÖ deputy mayor Vienna, Dominik Nepp, in a broadcast. If it falls to the Freedom Party, the reception of a community apartment must become a privilege of citizens. This is the only way to truly return municipal housing to the Austrians, Nepp said.
Criticisms of vacant municipal apartments and penalties for illegal rent
In view of rising rents, it is increasingly difficult, especially for young people, to find affordable housing. “At the same time, thousands of community apartments are vacant, as the Court of Auditors has repeatedly criticized. Time and again, community apartments are illegally offered for rent on online platforms. The city fails due to controls and would find more affordable housing in Vienna, “explains non-executive councilor Markus Wölbitsch.
To relieve tenants, the ÖVP also calls for a brake on rates and the cancellation of the Vienna Valuation Law without replacement, which automatically increases rates: an average family in Vienna now pays 270 euros more in rates per year than at the beginning of Red-Green. Since 2010, rates for garbage have increased by 18%, water by 48% and wastewater by 18.5%. At the same time, the city is generating surpluses in water and garbage charges year after year, according to the turquoise critic.
German in the state constitution, commitment to German support classes
“Integration needs clear rules. Whoever wants to live with us has to respect our laws, traditions and rules,” emphasizes Blümel, referring to the importance of the German language. This is what the city’s turquoise number 1 wants to see enshrined as the national language in the constitution of the city of Vienna. “All people living permanently in Austria must speak sufficient German. In Vienna, unlike all other federal states, the German language is not anchored as a national language in the constitution of the city of Vienna. With the legal anchor of German as the national language or official language in the constitution an important sign in the direction of a successful integration is established, “emphasizes Blümel. Because only those who have a good and sufficient command of the German language and also accept it as the national language of Vienna and Austria can successfully integrate with us.
Therefore, the city of Vienna has to commit to the German support classes decided at the federal level. It would improve the German language proficiency of students with long-term German language deficiencies and increase their integration and chances of success in their future educational and professional careers.
ÖVP demands closure of Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus
An integral part of the turquoise “decent center-right politics” is also the emergence against, from the ÖVP’s perspective, “far-left associations”. The Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus in Favoriten is mentioned as a concrete example. There are always violent clashes here, residents regularly complain about property damage. Therefore, the ÖVP requires the closing of the house and the disclosure of the ownership structure, as well as the financing and use of the tax money. To ensure peace and quiet in the district, the ÖVP advocates “improving the Grätzl through specific urban planning”.
