Only one found a job

Fuss about IT training for Halloween rioters

Scenes like this at the Halloween riot in 2022 shocked the whole of Upper Austria at the time.

(Bild: APA/FOTOKERSCHI.AT / APA / picturedesk.com)

After the Halloween scandal in 2022, the city of Linz launched a programming course for ten young people involved. So far, only one of the participants has found a job - despite a whopping EUR 134,000 being invested in the project.

The city of Linz invested an impressive EUR 134,000 in the "Code.Fusion" project after the Halloween riots in 2022. The provincial police department, aid organizations such as the Red Cross and Volkshilfe were involved. The aim was to make it easier for young asylum seekers to enter the job market through IT training to become "junior developers".

80 applications
80 young people applied, three women and seven men were selected. The pilot project was accompanied by retired AMS boss Gerhard Straßer, who received 24,000 euros as a management consultant. However, the results are extremely poor: only one participant has found an IT job since July 2024.

"A failed experiment"
"We warned against this questionable project from the outset. The majority of the city government pushed it through. Now it turns out that almost EUR 140,000 has been spent on a measure that has no discernible benefit for Linz," says FPÖ City Councillor for Security Michael Raml, criticizing what he sees as a "failed ideological experiment": "It is unacceptable that people who have attracted negative attention through riots are rewarded with expensive training, while our young people have to work for their own opportunities."

When the project was launched, there was still a great demand for IT staff in the economy. That has changed.

Ex-AMS-Chef Gerhard Straßer nennt die Umstände schwierig.

Stuck in the application process
Mayor Dietmar Prammer (SPÖ) doesn't want to leave it at that: "Getting into the IT sector takes time: in addition to the participant who has already found an IT job, several graduates are currently in the application process - some of them in the second round of interviews. One participant has decided to complete the evening school-leaving certificate in order to start an IT apprenticeship," says his office.

Ex-AMS boss Straßer says: "The course participants had the misfortune of starting their job search when the recession hit hard."

„Krone“-Kommentar Pro

Besser, als nichts zu tun

Yes, there are projects that work out better. If you look at the input - 134,000 euros - and the output - a job - it's obvious. Of course, you can criticize the fact that those young people who attracted a lot of attention during the Halloween riots were helped.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV, Alexander Schwarzl, Markus Wenzel)

But what is the alternative? Wait until these problem youths are finally criminals? And then loudly demand that they all be locked up and the key thrown away straight away?

How a society deals with its weakest members shows how strong it really is. Of course, there is still a "bad taste" when the former head of the AMS cuts into the finances of a commendable project when he retires.

„Krone“-Kommentar Contra

Besser, als das Falsche zu tun

Well meant is not always well done. Offering the Halloween rioters something to do is certainly the right approach. However, it is doubtful whether someone who throws stones at police officers in the street is particularly talented as a programmer.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV, Alexander Schwarzl, Markus Wenzel)

It would make more sense for someone who harms our society to learn how to make a positive contribution to it. Why not with tasks similar to those of community service? Why shouldn't an asylum seeker learn to care for injured people in an ambulance or assist the sick, elderly or disabled as a carer? Efforts in this direction would hardly fail in an economic recession.