The request came from the opposition last year: in May 2023, the SPÖ, Greens and Neos united in calling for “the earliest possible holding of a public symposium on the development of democracy in Upper Austria,” to which experts should be invited.
Previously, the three parties had repeatedly pushed for an abolition of the proportional system in the state government and for more control rights for the state parliament. Unsuccessful – because the FPÖ and ÖVP insisted on maintaining proportional representation, which automatically guarantees parties of a certain size one or more seats in government.
The democracy symposium will take place – at the invitation of the state parliament on March 14th in the OÖNachrichten-Forum in Linz. Martina Zandonella from the opinion research institute Foresight and the Innsbruck philosopher Marie-Luisa Frick will give lectures as experts.
Foresight (formerly Sora) has been surveying annually since 2018 what Austrians think regarding the political system and democracy in general. As a result, satisfaction has recently increased slightly once more following a low point in 2022, but remained at a low level overall.
Frick, who in her book “Dispute Civilly” defines the dispute over the best possible solution as a core element of democracy (as long as it takes place without interference), talks regarding “Democratic sustainability as a shared responsibility”. Afterwards, there will be a debate between the club representatives of the state parliament parties, in which topics such as the proportional representation system, more control rights for the state parliament or the length of the legislative period (see article on the right) will also be discussed. “
“Aside from day-to-day politics, we will look at how we can inspire citizens to actively participate in the political process, but also address the question of how we deal with each other in the state parliament and come to joint decisions,” says state parliament President Max Hiegelsberger (VP ).
The state parliament’s democracy symposium will take place on March 14th from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m in the OÖN forum and will take place via Livestream transmitted. More information regarding this in March.
Author
Markus Staudinger
Managing editor, deputy Head of Politics Department
Markus Staudinger
