Figl seeks to strengthen Vienna ÖVP as watchdog party

Vienna ÖVP leader Markus Figl has outlined plans to rebuild the party after its support fell to eight percent in a recent poll, telling ORF’s “Wien heute” summer interview that it should position itself more strongly as a watchdog in city politics.

The ÖVP received little support from women under 45 at the last municipal election. Figl said he understood the anger over derogatory remarks by former Vienna Chamber of Commerce president Walter Ruck and ÖVP leader Christian Stocker, saying politics must show greater respect. He pointed to the party’s female control councillor and the two women among his three deputies as evidence of the Vienna ÖVP’s strength.

Focus on minimum-income support and fees

Figl said the party had already used its watchdog role to put issues on the agenda, including minimum-income support. He cited a reform concerning people with subsidiary protection, but said many Vienna residents still considered it unfair that working people could struggle while families in which nobody worked received 8,000 euros a month.

He said the ÖVP stood for greater fairness based on performance, personal responsibility and individual freedom. Many people, he said, found Vienna’s bureaucracy and regulations excessive. The party had also criticised increases in charges for waste collection, water and other services, arguing that this conflicted with the Social Democrats’ calls for affordable housing.

Integration before citizenship

Figl said he did not want to change the legal requirements for obtaining Austrian citizenship, despite the fact that one-third of Vienna’s residents aged over 16 cannot vote. Citizenship should be clearly linked to rights and come at the end of an integration process, he said.

The priority should be ensuring the integration of people living in Vienna, Figl said. He added that some formal Austrian citizens did not feel Austrian, and that society had to integrate them in practice. This included understanding gender equality, women’s rights, the equal treatment of all people and human dignity, he said.

Heat protection in Vienna’s city centre

Figl is also head of Vienna’s first district, the densely built-up city centre, which has little green space and has again suffered from high temperatures this summer.

He said he wanted to rely heavily on natural shade from trees, although underground utility lines can make planting trees in public spaces difficult. Figl said he had cleared a backlog in replacing trees and launched a tree-rescue package with watering measures.

On the long-debated question of a car-free city centre, he said there should be room for changes and that improvements should be introduced step by step.