"An impertinence"

Landbauer sharply criticizes the “cash lawsuit”

Lower Austrian provincial party chairman Udo Landbauer.

(Bild: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

It was a "Krone" report that made big waves. An asylum seeker accommodated in Lower Austria called in his lawyer because he was no longer able to buy "everyday goods" online with his payment card. FPÖ state leader Udo Landbauer reacted with fierce criticism. 

Since June, payment cards from the provider Pluxee (formerly Sodexo) have been distributed to asylum seekers in eight selected accommodation facilities in Lower Austria instead of cash bills. Whether the switch to benefits in kind in the self-proclaimed "pilot province" really works, however, is likely to be decided in court very soon.

As reported by the "Krone" newspaper, an asylum seeker accommodated in Lower Austria has now sent his lawyer to the courts to request the return of cash. It is also argued that the refugee is dependent on sources other than specialist retailers, i.e. online platforms, to purchase everyday goods. The lawyer's eight-page application reached the competent office of the Lower Austrian provincial government at the beginning of August and was also submitted to the "Krone".

The reactions were mixed. Lawyer Thomas Trentinaglia sees the payment card as an "unlawful restriction of basic services" and a "violation of the right to adequate food". Lower Austria's state deputy Udo Landbauer, meanwhile, sees it as "outrageous". "The fact that not every asylum seeker likes the benefits in kind card was the purpose of the exercise. This is the only way we can prevent abusive cash transfers, the purchase of alcohol and tobacco products and a magnetic effect on other refugees," he clarifies.

You have to let this impertinence melt in your mouth. A person presumably in need of protection arrives in a foreign country, is given a warm bed as well as food and drink and then sues for cash and interest on arrears through a lawyer.

Udo Landbauer (FPÖ)

According to the powerful blue party leader, the fact that an asylum seeker from Lower Austria now wants to enforce his alleged right to cash through a lawyer only shows that some migrants are primarily interested in the best possible social benefits and not in protection or security.

 The "card system" allegedly violated the migrant's right to basic services, in particular to adequate food, his constitutional rights to physical integrity, to respect for his private life and to respect for his human dignity.