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Today in Austria: A round-up of the latest news on Friday

Find out what's going on today in Austria with The Local's short roundup of the news.

Published: 19 March 2021 10:00 CET
Pamela Rendi-Wagner
The former leader of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPOe) Pamela Rendi-Wagner arrives at Hofburg Palace for post-election TV debates in Vienna, Austria, on September 29, 2019 (Photo by VLADIMIR SIMICEK / AFP)

‘Lockdown needed’ says opposition SPÖ leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner

SPÖ leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner says Austria should lockdown soon, in order to stop the “worrying upward trend” of infections which risk overwhelming the country’s  intensive care units, she told the Ö1 “Morgenjournal” on Friday.

She said school closings or an extension of the Easter holidays, should be “the last resort”, the Der Standard newspaper reports.

Deaths fall in care homes

Deaths are falling among people in retirement homes, due to the vaccination campaign, figures from the Ministry of Health show. Patient advocate Gerald Bachinger is now calling for the visiting rules to be relaxed.

Scientist Niki Popper has urged the vaccination campaign to now focus on people aged 65 and over as these make up a large proportion of intensive care patients.

He says if this “vaccination gap” is closed, further openings are possible in May, broadcaster ORF reports. 

Paper version of Digital Green Certificate for travel

Austria’s Ministry of Health has said there will also be a paper version of the EU Commission’s proposed Digital Green Certificate for travel. This would be in addition to a mobile application, which should also allow access for the elderly. Every second person between 65 and 74 uses a smartphone in Austria, according to the newspaper Wiener Zeitung

End in sight for border controls in Tyrol? 

Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz showed confidence in a visit to Berlin on Thursday that the German border controls to Tyrol will soon be ended.

Kurz: ‘The danger is the virus, not the vaccine’

After his meeting with the German Interior Minister Seehofer, Kurz said he was assuming “that if the infection process continues to develop so well in Tyrol”, the controls could be ended within two weeks, according to the APA agency.

FPÖ deputy in intensive care with coronavirus

The deputy chairman of the FPÖ party, Manfred Haimbuchner, is intensive care on a ventilator after contracting Covid 19. He tested positive for the corona virus on 11th March, two days after allegedly attending a baby shower with up to 30 people in his home town of Steinhaus near Wels, broadcaster ORF reports. 

AstraZeneca vaccine ‘central’ to Austria’s rollout

Health Minister Rudolf Anschober has said the AstraZeneca vaccine is central to Austria and the EU’s vaccination programmes because the drug does not need to be heavily refrigerated, is easier to transport and can also be used by GPs.

AstraZeneca vaccine ‘safe and effective’ against Covid-19: European Medicines Agency 

By the end of the second quarter of 2021, 4.6 million people in Austria, or 63 per cent of adults, should have received vaccination protection, including 5.9 million doses from AstraZeneca, ORF reports. 

New Hedy Lamarr museum in Vienna

Vienna is planning a museum for Hollywood icon Hedy Lamarr. Lamarr was born in Vienna before becoming a celebrated actress who also invented torpedo defence technology which is considered a forerunner of Bluetooth.

Vienna’s Jewish Museum bought the Lamarr’s estate of the US actress, which includes an archive of photos, personal letters and documents as well as items of clothing and her legendary drawings on torpedo defense.

It is now looking for a suitable exhibition location, ORF reports. 

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CRIME

Are there ‘young gangs’ forming in Vienna?

If you read Austrian tabloid media, Vienna has a 'gang' problem, with several crimes committed by groups of young people in recent months. But is that true?

Published: 18 April 2024 13:17 CEST
Are there 'young gangs' forming in Vienna?

Austrian tabloid media jumps on such stories: a group of teenage girls breaking into cars in Linz or vandalism and robberies committed by young people in Vienna. Particularly in the capital, it seems that there was a rise in crimes committed by groups of young people. But does that mean that Vienna has a gang problem?

According to the newspaper daily Der Standard, the Vienna Provincial Police Directorate (LPD) repeatedly states that the much-cited youth gangs do not exist but that there is “an increase in young people appearing in groups and committing offences”.  

What does that mean, and what is the difference between “young people appearing in groups and committing offences” and gangs?

According to the police: “The term gang is commonly used in everyday language – without a precise definition in this context. In criminal law, however, the term is clearly defined. From a criminal law perspective, a gang is an organised, hierarchically structured group of people intent on committing offences on an ongoing basis.”

READ ALSO: Which crimes are on the rise in Austria?

According to the police, they are dealing with “groups that come together spontaneously” and are not “hierarchically organised.” These groups mostly commit “thefts or minor robberies” but are not criminal organisations. 

So, technically, Vienna does not have a “youth gang” problem, but it does have an increase in young people in groups committing crimes – though the police didn’t share official numbers.

A recent Kurier report stated that the number of crimes committed by young people and children under the age of 14 has doubled in the last ten years.

At the same time, there has only been a slight increase among young people over the age of 14 and even a decrease among young adults. The main crimes committed by young people and adolescents are theft, damage to property, assault, burglary and dangerous threats.

Christian Holzhacker, Head of Education at the Association of Viennese Youth Centers, told Der Standard that it is important not to “stigmatise” an age group and that the word gang is often used in an “inflationary way”. He points out that in relation to the size of the Viennese population, the number of minors committing crimes is small, even if it is increasing.

He also highlighted that stigmatising regions or groups of young people who get together in public spaces is not the answer. “If you want to fight crime, you have to look at the realities of the lives of the people who have committed crimes,” he said.

READ ALSO: Is Vienna a safe city to visit?

What are the police doing about the crime?

Austria’s federal criminal police office has gathered a new special task force to combat youth crime (EJK). According to the Ministry of the Interior, the idea is to recognise the new phenomenon and combat youth gangs in Austria. 

The task force is set to carry out checks in public spaces, particularly in urban areas and “potential hotspots”, Kurier reported.

The task force also set up a “panel of experts” to suggest how parents can be more responsible, how children’s use of social media and cell phones can be improved, and how the asylum system can better accommodate young migrants.

However, Dieter Csefan, head of the task force, told Die Presse that most young offenders were born in Austria.

“There are unaccompanied minors, but the young people we meet in the groups and gangs usually have parents. And the prolific offenders often come from a normal home. They can also be native Austrians. So it’s not always just Afghans or Syrians”, he said.

He also mentioned that “lowering the age of criminal responsibility is one suggestion” to fight crime. Currently, the age is set at 18, but there are discussions and proposals to lower it to twelve. However, “that alone is not necessarily enough”, he added.

READ NEXT: Which parts of Austria have the highest crime rates?

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