Austria’s new coalition government has announced it will halt all family reunifications for asylum seekers, effective immediately.
Vienna’s new chancellor, Christian Stocker, who took office on March 3, announced that the governing coalition parties had agreed on an immediate stop to allowing refugees who have received asylum in Austria to have their family members flown in from their home countries.
“The aim of the temporary suspension is to integrate those who are there. Because overloading is of no benefit to our population, nor to those who come to us or want to come to us. ”
Stocker added, “Immediately means now.”
The day before, Karner said: “We have announced that we would introduce quotas for family reunification. The first quota is zero.”
The intended length of the pause remains unclear.
The move comes just weeks after a deadly knife attack was carried out by a Syrian refugee in the southern town of Villach that claimed the life of a 14-year-old boy and wounded five others.
Several planned Islamist attacks have also been recently foiled by Austrian security services, leading to widespread concern about immigration, both legal and illegal.
Austrian People’s Party (OVP) leader Stocker is heading up the first three-party government since the 1940s, ending the country’s longest-ever wait for a ruling coalition, and excluding the September 2024 election’s most successful party, the Freedom Party (FPO).
Although the FPO garnered about 29 percent of the votes, the Euroskeptic, anti-immigration party failed to form a workable coalition with the OVP.
When the FPO attempt collapsed, the conservative OVP, Social Democrats (SPO), and liberal NEOS formed an alliance.
Responding to the announcement to end family reunification, the FPO said the move “sounds different” but argued that Stocker’s first promise had “already been broken.”
On X, the party said: “The system has long been overloaded! We are bursting at the seams, the situation is out of control, Austria is suffering from a massive asylum crisis. This statement by Mr Stocker on ‘X’ shows that he is once again looking for a way out of his policy of announcements. A classic ‘backtracking!’ Stop trying to fool the population!”
Stocker’s new government takes office after two years of recession and plans spending cuts and tax hikes on big business to bring Austria’s budget deficit back within European Union limits to avoid disciplinary proceedings from Brussels.
“There is much to do, the challenges are great and far-reaching,” Stocker said at a handover ceremony, taking over from caretaker Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg.
His government also plans stricter immigration rules and tougher punishment of extremism and “political Islam.”
The OVP heads the interior and defense ministries, while the SPO controls finance and justice, with NEOS running foreign affairs.
Although the three parties have agreed on a 200-page government program, they will have to continue negotiations going forward.
“Will it be easy? No. Are the negotiations over? No,” NEOS leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger said on March 2, pledging “five years of tough negotiation” with the other parties.
The FPO has called for a snap election, saying, “The only thing that unites this loser, traffic-light coalition is thirst for power.”
Current polls indicate the FPO would do even better if a new election were called.
