Organisation calls for guarantee of Slovenian minority MP in Austria
Klagenfurt, 24 February - An umbrella organisation of the Slovenian minority in Austria has called on the future Austrian government coalition to follow Germany's example and commit to a guaranteed MP seat for ethnic minorities in the federal legislature and a guarantee of a Slovenian minority MP in the Carinthia state parliament.
Vienna, Austria
Austrian parliament.
Photo: BoĊĦtjan Podlogar/STA
File photo
Following Germany's early election on Sunday, the National Council of Carinthian Slovenians (NSKS) congratulated the South Schleswig Voters' Association (SSW), which represents the Danish and Frisian minorities in Germany, on getting re-elected to the country's parliament.
The SSW received some 76,000 votes in what is a historic outcome that proves that a minority party can also be a strong voice in parliament, the NSKS said in a press release on Monday.
The organisation pointed out that, due to a special provision in the federal elections law, minority parties in Germany are exempted from the required 5% electoral threshold in order to increase their chances of representation in federal politics.
Moreover, for decades now the SSW party has been represented in the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament as well.
"What is possible in Germany should also be possible in the Carinthia state parliament for the Slovenian ethnic community and in the Austrian parliament for all autochthonous ethnic communities through one MP seat, with or without the right to vote," the NSKS wrote.
The electoral system in Germany, same as the one in Slovenia, where Italian and Hungarian minorities are each guaranteed a seat with full voting rights in parliament, is an exemplary model of equal participation, democratic politics and the noblest type of constant dialogue with autochthonous minorities, they said, adding that the next government programme in Austria should follow suit.
The last general election in Austria was held in September, but following several failed attempts at forming a new coalition the next government is yet to take shape.
The three biggest centrist parties in the country's parliament have recently indicated that they are just about to agree a coalition government without the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), which won the election.