Uproar in Grödig

Sinti and Roma are currently besieging the stadium parking lot

The large parking lot at the Grödig stadium resembles a campsite.(Bild: Tröster Andreas)

A large group of Sinti and Roma are currently stopping off in the Flachgau municipality of Grödig. Around 40 caravans are currently in the parking lot of the soccer stadium.

Since the weekend, the large parking lot in front of the Grödig soccer stadium has resembled a campsite. Around 40 caravans of Sinti and Roma have taken up temporary residence there. "They will stay for around four weeks, they told us," says Grödig's mayor Herbert Schober, who is anything but happy with the situation. "There are massive complaints from the local population. In addition, the parking lot and adjacent areas are polluted," he says. The pump track and the municipality's exercise island are located right next to it. The building yard complains about the additional workload for staff, who are then absent elsewhere. However, the municipality does not have much power to do anything about it.

Mayor Herbert Schober is anything but happy with the situation at the Grödig stadium parking lot.(Bild: Tröster Andreas)

Upper Austria relies on its own transit areas 

At the next municipal council meeting, however, an ordinance is to be passed prohibiting camping in the parking lot. This is because there are no sanitary facilities, electricity or water in the parking lot.

Schober is calling for a round table with the state, district administration, police and municipalities. "Because a supra-regional solution is needed," says the head of the village. If a large group can no longer stand in Grödig, they will look for other places in other municipalities. This would only shift the problem. He sees one possibility in the Upper Austrian solution, which has created transit areas for Sinti and Roma in Braunau and Linz.

There was also a push for this in Salzburg in 2014 by the then Integration Minister Martina Berthold (Greens). Nothing came of it. Would that be possible for Salzburg now? "I would prefer not to have any incentives to stop here at all," says Marlene Svazek (FPÖ), Deputy Provincial Councillor for Integration, on the matter.