NEOS boss Beate Meinl-Reisinger supported the city of Vienna in a ZIB2 interview yesterday evening, on the question of the distribution of those entitled to asylum and their relatives from Syria who are currently arriving through family reunification. As most of the asylum seekers are in Vienna, the federal capital, governed by the SPÖ-NEOS coalition, now has problems – such as too few classes in schools. Meinl-Reisinger called for “unity throughout Austria”. However, according to lawyer Walter Obweckser, a residence requirement is contrary to EU law anyway.
A residence requirement is currently being discussed as a condition for receiving a minimum income for victims. NEOS has been calling for this for a long time, but lacks support from other parties, especially the central government.
The city government's resolution calling on the federal government to act is primarily seen as a gesture even by the SPÖ. Meinl-Reisinger broke away from the Vienna SPÖ here.
Obwexer: Contravenes EU law
However, according to European legal expert Obwexer, the idea of a residency requirement recently unveiled by AMS boss Johannes Kopp and intended to ease Vienna's financial and social policy burden is unlikely to be implemented. As he emphasized to ZIB2, EU law requires asylum seekers to be treated in the same way as domestic social welfare recipients. If implemented, the latter should also be barred from moving to another federal state. Green society minister Johannes Rauch had previously mentioned the legal issue.
The FPÖ also wants to convince voters
Meinl-Reisinger, the NEOS leader, wants to “look forward” after the moderate results for her party in the Salzburg and Innsbruck local elections. “We have five months,” he said, referring to the National Council elections in the fall. He also warned against those forces that wanted to “destroy” Europe.
Regarding the fact that according to the polls, the FPÖ is very popular, the party leader said: “Polls are polls.” And he “wanted to speak to those who have lost faith in politics, perhaps in democracy and in the ability of politics to solve problems – and I want to address the FPÖ voters, especially in the European elections, because at this point you really have to say: what the FPÖ is doing is a direct path to poverty in Austria and not a good future for us.”
