More and more violence

After the assassination plan: How safe is Austria still?

(Bild: Mathis Fotografie/Krone KREATIV)

Prevented assassination plans, knife attacks in the middle of Vienna, gang wars. The perpetrators are getting younger and younger and the spiral of violence in Austria is accelerating. What is Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) doing about the new excesses of violence?

The "Swift assassins" were taken out of circulation in good time. Nevertheless, the foiled attack on the open-air concerts is the sad culmination of a series of new excesses of violence in Austria. There have been gang wars in the middle of Vienna, illegal car races and life-threatening knife attacks on police officers.

In view of these developments, the legitimate question arises: how safe is Austria still? "We are still one of the safest countries in the world. This is also confirmed by the World Peace Index. But we also have challenges. We are very concerned about the issue of juvenile delinquency. We are also very concerned about Islamist extremism," admits ÖVP Interior Minister Gerhard Karner.

1. the problem of youth crime: the perpetrators are getting younger and younger - the suspected Taylor Swift bombers are also teenagers. After numerous extreme incidents such as the gang rape of a twelve-year-old, the task force to combat youth crime was set up in March. The first successes have been achieved. Since the task force was set up, 30,000 people have been checked nationwide (Vienna: around 19,000). 4,500 charges have been filed. Of the people reported, more than 1100 were minors. Since March, 420 arrests have been made.

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner

(Bild: BMI/Karl Schober)

2. is the law banning the carrying of knives too "lax"? Violent crimes involving knives have risen by 25 percent in the last 10 years. According to Karner's plan, the carrying of knives should therefore be banned in the local area in future, but also in built-up areas outside the local area, i.e. virtually across the board.

However, hardly any ÖVP Minister of the Interior has ever had a law described as too "lax" by the Greens of all people. Green Social Affairs Minister Johannes Rauch therefore presented a six-point plan for a ban on carrying knives. One of the key differences to the ÖVP's proposal is a general ban on carrying knives for people under the influence of alcohol. "Alcohol and knives don't mix. No matter what kind of knife - anyone who is under the influence of alcohol should not be armed", explained Rauch.

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner countered: "The responsibility of the Minister of Health is scalpels, not stabbings. The draft law is not a proposal that I invented, but one that the police officers wanted. But I was also surprised that the FPÖ is against "disarming" Afghan knifemen.

The fact is that if the law banning the carrying of knives is to be passed before September 29, a compromise needs to be reached quickly. Knife attacks on police officers like the one at Reumannplatz will then remain a real danger. 

Illegal border crossings by refugees have fallen sharply.

(Bild: Privat)

3. balance of deportations. There were 6553 deportations in the first half of the year. If you look at the figures in detail, you can see that 50 percent of those deported were Europeans, but only 20 percent of deportations involved classic asylum countries.

Can these figures be sold as a success with a clear conscience? "Absolutely," says Karner. He doesn't "care where a criminal comes from, the decisive factor is whether someone is a criminal. If someone is a criminal, they are deported". Half of the deportees are convicted criminals and the other half are asylum seekers who were not granted a residence permit or so-called "Dublin transfers".

Deportations to Afghanistan are being worked on at a diplomatic level. As there is no desire to negotiate with the Taliban, alternatives are being sought in neighboring countries. Instead of being sent directly to Afghanistan, rejected asylum seekers are to be sent to neighboring countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in the near future.

4. illegal border crossings. Refugees are now avoiding Austria. In Burgenland, there were 303 apprehensions of illegal border crossings in the first half of the year. In the same period in 2023, there were still 10,731 apprehensions at the Burgenland-Hungarian border. That's a drop of 97 percent.