Austria unveils first bilingual train station sign
Bleiburg, 12 August - Nearly a month after several bilingual place name signs were vandalised in the Austrian province of Carinthia, the first bilingual train station name sign was unveiled in the province that is home to majority of Slovenian minority in Austria on Monday.
Bleiburg, Austria
A German-Slovenian name sign unveiled at the Bleiburg/Pliberk train station in the Austrian province of Carinthia.
Photo: Slovenian Justice Ministry's X profile
The sign in Bleiburg/Pliberk was inaugurated by the Austrian Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology Leonore Gewessler.
The event was also attended by Slovenian Justice Ministry State Secretary Milan Brglez, who underlined that this was a necessary step for the preservation of the Slovenian language in Carinthia.
He attended the event on the invitation of Austrian MP Olga Voglauer, the minority member who initiated the bilingual railway station name signs. By the end of the year, bilingual signs are to be erected in all railway stations in municipalities with Austrian and Slovenian population.
"These are necessary small steps to preserve the Slovenian language in this area," said Brglez. The National Council of Carinthian Slovenians (NSKS) is meanwhile hoping that bilingual signs would also be introduced inside train and bus stations, the Slovenian programme of the Austrian public broadcaster ORF reported.
Brglez also commented on Austrian legislation changes aiming to expand the areas where courts would be obliged to use Slovenian as official language in addition to German to the nearly entire existing bilingual area. He believes the changes will require patience, as they have to be endorsed by two thirds of the MPs.