Today in Austria: A roundup of the news on Monday
Survey reveals Austrians want changes to the political system, 'burgergate' continues to put pressure on chancellor, housing market woes and more news from across Austria on Monday.
Austrians want political system shake-up
Although the Austrian political system has its fans, 41 percent of Austrians want a “completely different” political system.
A survey by the Linz Market Institute and Der Standard posed the question: "Should the existing political system in Austria essentially remain intact or should there be a fundamental change?" and found that two in five Austrians wanted to shake up the Alpine republic’s political system, with this sentiment particularly strong among non-voters and supporters of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ).
Meanwhile only 58 percent thought it was important that free and democratic elections take place.
The survey also found that only 30 percent of FPÖ voters thought that rejecting the Nazi dictatorship and punishing neo-nazis was important.
Will the hamburger comments be the downfall of Austrian chancellor?
The “burgergate” debate about the comments from Chancellor Karl Nehammer, from the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), suggesting that Austria doesn’t have children going hungry because poor children can eat at McDonald’s has continued.
Political scientist Natascha Strobl told The Local that this could be the beginning of the end for the embattled Chancellor, whose party is currently in third place.
“After Kurz left he tried to calm the waters and present himself as someone who would work with anyone," said Strobl. "But he always slipped up. This isn’t the first time. People feel this is the proof that he’s incapable of doing the job.”
Figures from the government, such as Minister for Work Martin Kocher, defended the remarks. “The fact that many children in Austria have to go hungry is simply not true. All the numbers show that”.
READ ALSO: Austrian chancellor under fire for saying low-income families should eat at McDonalds
Students want more support
Students are going back today but Austria’s universities are requesting an additional €525 million from the government to cope with rising costs caused by high inflation.
The government will decide on how much extra to give them from the budget for the next later this month, as well as deciding how much unis will get in total until 2027.
Meanwhile technical universities known as “Fachhochschulen” are trying to change their names to “Hochschulen für Angewandte Wissenschaften” or Universities of Applied Science.
Austrian housing market in bad shape
The property market in Austria is in a poor shape due to unaffordable interest rates, with numbers of sales collapsing by almost 60 percent in Vienna after years of boom, while across the whole of Austria only 20,000 apartments were sold int the first half of the year, compared to 26,000 the year before.
And according to a report by Remax, prices have dropped for the first time since 2015, in some cases by up to 20 percent.
Monday weather
Expect lots of sun across Austria today, with few clouds and highs of between 21 and 27C.
The evening and night will also be largely clear. However, fog is expect in places, including Lower Carinthia, southern Styria and southern Burgenland, and parts of Upper and Lower Austria.
Temperatures will drop to between 16 and 6C at night. In some valleys it will be cooler.
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Austrians want political system shake-up
Although the Austrian political system has its fans, 41 percent of Austrians want a “completely different” political system.
A survey by the Linz Market Institute and Der Standard posed the question: "Should the existing political system in Austria essentially remain intact or should there be a fundamental change?" and found that two in five Austrians wanted to shake up the Alpine republic’s political system, with this sentiment particularly strong among non-voters and supporters of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ).
Meanwhile only 58 percent thought it was important that free and democratic elections take place.
The survey also found that only 30 percent of FPÖ voters thought that rejecting the Nazi dictatorship and punishing neo-nazis was important.
Will the hamburger comments be the downfall of Austrian chancellor?
The “burgergate” debate about the comments from Chancellor Karl Nehammer, from the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), suggesting that Austria doesn’t have children going hungry because poor children can eat at McDonald’s has continued.
Political scientist Natascha Strobl told The Local that this could be the beginning of the end for the embattled Chancellor, whose party is currently in third place.
“After Kurz left he tried to calm the waters and present himself as someone who would work with anyone," said Strobl. "But he always slipped up. This isn’t the first time. People feel this is the proof that he’s incapable of doing the job.”
Figures from the government, such as Minister for Work Martin Kocher, defended the remarks. “The fact that many children in Austria have to go hungry is simply not true. All the numbers show that”.
READ ALSO: Austrian chancellor under fire for saying low-income families should eat at McDonalds
Students want more support
Students are going back today but Austria’s universities are requesting an additional €525 million from the government to cope with rising costs caused by high inflation.
The government will decide on how much extra to give them from the budget for the next later this month, as well as deciding how much unis will get in total until 2027.
Meanwhile technical universities known as “Fachhochschulen” are trying to change their names to “Hochschulen für Angewandte Wissenschaften” or Universities of Applied Science.
Austrian housing market in bad shape
The property market in Austria is in a poor shape due to unaffordable interest rates, with numbers of sales collapsing by almost 60 percent in Vienna after years of boom, while across the whole of Austria only 20,000 apartments were sold int the first half of the year, compared to 26,000 the year before.
And according to a report by Remax, prices have dropped for the first time since 2015, in some cases by up to 20 percent.
Monday weather
Expect lots of sun across Austria today, with few clouds and highs of between 21 and 27C.
The evening and night will also be largely clear. However, fog is expect in places, including Lower Carinthia, southern Styria and southern Burgenland, and parts of Upper and Lower Austria.
Temperatures will drop to between 16 and 6C at night. In some valleys it will be cooler.
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