Wallner renews call to lower age of criminal responsibility to 12

Vorarlberg Governor Markus Wallner has renewed his call to lower Austria’s age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12, telling ORF’s Pressestunde programme on Sunday that early offenders should face early consequences. The ÖVP politician said this should be accompanied by a network of mandatory support services.

Wallner, who chairs the Conference of State Governors, warned against a situation in which young people are used by adult offenders, citing suburbs of Stockholm as an example he did not want Austria to face. Sweden is also debating prison sentences for 13-year-olds. The ÖVP, led on the issue by Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, raised the demand in 2024 after several youth crime cases, Wallner said, but advancing it in the coalition with the Greens had been practically impossible.

Wallner also called for limits and waiting periods for people entitled to asylum under a planned overhaul of social assistance. He said the system should prevent poverty but avoid encouraging people to move into it, and should aim to keep recipients’ time on assistance as short as possible. Vorarlberg is a leader in limiting that duration, he said. Wallner added that a cap on payments and tiered child rates were needed: “Every child is worth the same, but costs do not triple with three children.”

The new social assistance system is due to take effect on January 1, 2027. Wallner said that deadline was achievable if there was the will, and urged the government to bring the states into discussions quickly. He also said the reform should not create new bureaucracy.

Wallner opposes a proposal to use residents’ 13th and 14th pension payments to help fund care in nursing homes. Older people need “some degree of autonomy”, he said, adding that individual dignity must be respected at the beginning and end of life. The proposal, put forward by Social Minister Korinna Schumann of the SPÖ, was discussed two weeks ago by the Care Development Commission.

Wallner said the first specialist medical centres must open in 2027, and called for pressure to be increased by the end of this year. Legislative proposals and funding arrangements are still outstanding, he said. He also called for better conditions for doctors working within the public insurance system, saying that in some cases there are more private-choice doctors than publicly insured doctors.

On education, Wallner said reform talks had yet to produce results, although they were further along than in health care. A quality framework with minimum standards is due in the first quarter of next year. He said the proposed six-year primary school trial had received “hardly any positive reactions” in Vorarlberg.