Steiermark opposition walks out over repeated vote

Opposition parties in the Steiermark state parliament walked out after a disputed vote was repeated, ORF reported, with the governing FPÖ and ÖVP accusing them of refusing to do their work.

The dispute began on Tuesday during a vote on a motion by the FPÖ-ÖVP coalition concerning a “prohibition law against political Islam”. During a series of votes on successive motions, the two governing parties apparently voted against their own proposal by mistake.

FPÖ and ÖVP blamed SPÖ politician Helga Ahrer, the parliament’s third president, saying she had read out the wrong number and triggered the initial vote result. The vote was repeated several hours later, after a break.

SPÖ, the Greens, NEOS and KPÖ, along with Ahrer, left the chamber and did not return for the rest of the session. They argued that parliamentary rules allow a vote to be repeated only under specific conditions, which they said had not been met. They also said a meeting of the parliamentary presidium during the break had initially been told the vote would not be repeated.

Opposition leaders called the move a serious concern for democracy and requested a special meeting of the presidium. The governing parties said the repeat vote was permitted because there were justified doubts about how members had voted.

FPÖ parliamentary leader Marco Triller called the walkout a failure to respect democratic processes. ÖVP parliamentary leader Lukas Schnitzer accused the opposition of refusing to work, saying it had left over a procedural dispute rather than taking part in the debate on extremism and threats to democracy. He said SPÖ and NEOS had indicated they would support the motion on its substance.