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VIENNA

How Austria celebrated dining out after a six-month lockdown

With Covid-19 certificates in hand, Austrians on Wednesday could once again file into restaurants and cafes after more than six months of restrictions.

How Austria celebrated dining out after a six-month lockdown
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz partially obscured by some delicious beer. Photo: JOE KLAMAR / AFP

To grab a seat, patrons needed to have a document proving that they’ve been vaccinated, tested negative or recently recovered from Covid-19.

Along with eateries, the Alpine EU member also opened hotels, sports, leisure and cultural venues including the renowned Vienna State Opera.

IN PICTURES: Austria celebrates in beer gardens after six-month lockdown ends

“It feels strange after so many months,” said 46-year-old Christoph Neubauer, an insurance broker enjoying a coffee with a colleague in the historic Cafe Central in downtown Vienna.

“But I really look forward to tonight, because I have a reservation for a restaurant, and I expect it to be busy,” he told AFP.

Many restaurants reported being fully booked, especially as new regulations limit the number of people per table to four indoors, with a mandatory minimum distance of two metres (6.6 feet) between groups.

EXPLAINED: What are Austria’s new coronavirus measures?

“Economically speaking, there’s no point in opening with this limited capacity, but we really wanted to light a beacon of hope by opening,” said Andrea Winkler, who runs Cafe Mozart and the Australian pub Crossfield’s.

“It’s really to give us and our staffers something to do — it’s really against our nature to do nothing all day long,” Winkler said.

Right across the street, underneath the Albertina, one of Vienna’s most popular art museums, Josef Bitzinger, whose family has run Augustinerkeller restaurant since the 1950s, said though many patrons were excited about the reopening, overall the atmosphere was still subdued.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Tourism Minister Elisabeth Koestinger, Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler and the secretary for culture Andrea Mayer have lunch in the garden of Schweizerhouse (Swiss house) restaurant at Prater amusement park in Vienna, Austria. Photo: Joe Klamar/AFP
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Tourism Minister Elisabeth Koestinger, Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler and the secretary for culture Andrea Mayer have lunch in the garden of Schweizerhouse (Swiss house) restaurant at Prater amusement park in Vienna, Austria. Photo: Joe Klamar/AFP

“I was expecting a big hoorah, but it doesn’t look like it — not yet,” he said, adding the masses of tourists who usually descend upon downtown Vienna were still missing, while some Austrians also remained hesitant to go out.

“But I think this will improve day by day now, and by June or July, hopefully it’ll all be good again,” he told AFP. But the new rules may also be putting off some people.

“It’s complicated. I wanted to get a coffee, but I’m still waiting for my test results,” Brigitte Gruber told AFP at Naschmarkt, an outdoor market in downtown Vienna.

She added the new rules “obliged people to do things that they don’t want to do, such as getting vaccinated”.

A third of Austria’s nine million people have been vaccinated so far. The country has recorded some 10,500 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

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AUSTRIAN CITIZENSHIP

Why is Vienna pushing hard for the easing of citizenship rules?

Authorities in the Austrian capital Vienna are campaigning hard for the federal government to change the bureaucratic process of naturalisation.

Why is Vienna pushing hard for the easing of citizenship rules?

The Vienna authorities and the city’s so-called Integration Council have recently strongly criticised the existing restrictive citizenship law, arguing that it creates a “democratic deficit” by excluding over one-third of Vienna’s resident population from the right to vote. In a press statement, they have called for reforms to address this issue.

While the citizenship law is under federal jurisdiction and cannot be changed by individual provinces, regional authorities can still exert pressure for reforms. Vienna has advocated for law changes for several years, especially as the city’s immigrant population continues to grow.

Naturalisation as an integration tool

The latest proposal from the Vienna Integration Council, led by Deputy Mayor Christoph Wiederkehr of the Neos party, suggested granting automatic citizenship to children born in Austria if one parent has legally resided in the country for five years.

According to the Integration Council, Vienna has experienced a significant decline in the naturalisation rate compared to other European countries, despite the population growth resulting from immigration. The current requirements for Austrian naturalisation include ten years of legal and uninterrupted residence, as well as proof of sufficient financial means and a secure livelihood.

READ ALSO: Reader question: Does Austria allow me to have multiple citizenships?

The Integration Council called for reducing the length of required residence, lowering income thresholds, and allowing dual citizenship. They also emphasised the need for increased resources for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (MA 35) in Vienna to streamline and enhance the efficiency and transparency of the naturalisation process.

Additionally, the council highlighted the challenges the current citizenship law poses to the integration process. Gerd Valchars, a member of the Integration Council and a political scientist, said that naturalisation is vital in facilitating social integration, leading to higher incomes, lower unemployment rates, improved housing conditions, and better educational opportunities for children.

austria passport

Austria has strict rules on citizenship, but a powerful passport. (© Amanda Previdelli / The Local)

‘Democratic deficit’

It’s not the first time Vienna has mentioned an “increasing democratic deficit” in Austrian society. 

Already in its Integration Monitor 2020, the SPÖ-led administration said: “A democracy thrives on the participation of the largest possible number of people subject to the laws that are passed.

“But if people are not allowed to vote because of their citizenship or do not (any longer) make use of their right to vote (as it happens especially often with disadvantaged population groups1), this leads to the fact that their interests are no longer represented in parliament, state parliament, the municipal council or district council. This is a massive democratic deficit that has been growing in recent years due to increasing mobility and immigration.”

“The situation is exacerbated by the very restrictive naturalisation law in force in Austria, as described above. Not only does the representativeness and, thus, legitimacy of democracy suffer from this situation, but it also leads to an integration policy problem. This is because people who are not allowed to participate in decision-making may develop less interest in political processes and the development of the society in which they live”, it added.

BACKGROUND: What are Austria’s Social Democratic Party’s plans to ease citizenship rules?

The City has called for easing citizenship rules for almost 20 years, requesting that political participation rights be linked to residents after a certain stay.

In 2003, Stadt Wien introduced voting rights for third-country nationals at the district level, with prerequisites such as five years of legal residence and main residence in Vienna. However, this regulation was overturned by the Constitutional Court in 2004 because Austrian federal constitutional law only recognises a uniform right to vote at all levels of the federal state linked to Austrian citizenship.

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: Could Austria ever change the rules to allow dual citizenship?

Who is prevented from voting in Vienna and Austria?

At the beginning of 2022, 31.5 percent of the population of voting age 16 and older were not allowed to vote in elections at the federal, provincial and municipal levels, according to Stadt Wien data.

According to the latest information, 14.18 percent of Viennese citizens of voting age are citizens of other EU member states and, therefore, eligible to vote at least at the district level.

However, 17.26 percent of Viennese citizens of voting age have the citizenship of a third country and are therefore not allowed to vote at any level.

In some districts, the proportions of people without voting rights are much higher. In Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus, 42.4 percent of the population of voting age do not have the right to vote. In no other district is the proportion of Viennese who are allowed to participate in democratic processes lower. In contrast, in Hietzing, “only” 20.8 percent are excluded from democratic participation.

READ ALSO: Austrian presidential elections: Why 1.4 million people can’t vote

Young people with foreign citizenship are particularly affected by the exclusion from the right to vote: 41.4 percent of Viennese citizens between the ages of 16 and 44 do not have Austrian citizenship.

In Austria, the latest Statistik Austria data shows that 19 percent of all people residing in the country are not Austrian nationals – and, therefore, would not have the right to vote. The number has increased considerably since January 1st 2022, when 17.7 percent of the population had foreign citizenship. This considers people of all ages, and not only those of voting age (16 or above).

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