Initiative against church privileges
The initiative against church privileges was an Austrian citizens' initiative that demanded the abolition of privileges for religious communities in Austria and a clear separation of church and state and with this aim initiated a referendum in April 2013 . The participation of less than 1% was the lowest of all referendums in Austria to date .
Initiative and referendum
In the period from March 15, 2011 to December 31, 2012, declarations of support were available in municipalities across Austria, whereby 8032 declarations of support were required to initiate a referendum. According to Art. 41 Para. 2 B-VG, after the required number of declarations of support has been provided, a total of 100,000 signatures of eligible voters must be submitted at another date within a period of eight days. Since the declarations of support are automatically counted, the citizens' initiative aimed to have 100,000 signatures by October 15, 2011.
The text of the popular initiative aimed at the creation of a federal constitutional law which would abolish church privileges, a clear separation of church and state, and cut high subsidies to the church. The initiative called for an end to the Concordat and a federal law to investigate church abuse and violent crimes.
On December 31, 2012, 8,637 letters of support were submitted to the Ministry of the Interior. 44% of them came from Vienna, followed by Lower Austria and Upper Austria. In January 2013, the Federal Ministry of the Interior approved the application for the referendum against church privileges and set the registration period to be from April 15 to April 22, 2013. The referendum took place at the same time as the referendum Democracy Now! instead of.
A total of 56,660 eligible voters signed the referendum, which corresponds to just 0.89 percent of those eligible to vote. 100,000 signatures would have been required for treatment in the National Council.
Text of the referendum
For the creation of a federal constitutional law:
- To abolish church privileges
- For a clear separation of church and state
- For the cancellation of gigantic subsidies to the church
For a federal law to investigate church abuse and violent crimes
Initiators
The initiators of the referendum against church privileges were various individuals and organizations critical of the church and religion , such as the entrepreneur Niko Alm , chairman of the Central Council of Non- denominationalists , the physicist Heinz Oberhummer , the author Sepp Rothwangl, the entrepreneur Philippe F. Lorre, the artist Elisabeth Ohri Student representative Claudia Gamon and the Association for Affected Church Violence . The Freethinkers Association of Austria and the Giordano Bruno Foundation were also involved in the organization.
The initiative is financed by private donations.
criticism
The initiative Wir sind Kirche , which in 1995 carried out the signature campaign “ Kirchenvolks-Begehren ” to encourage reforms in the Roman Catholic Church, does not support the initiative against church privileges. Although “We are Church” does not support ecclesiastical privileges, the facts criticized by the initiative against church privileges are not privileges, and individual allegations are “even wrong in the matter”. "Individual changes in the Concordat" are considered "desirable", but "no (...) clear-cutting, but an orderly and rapid implementation step by step" makes sense.
The Evangelical Church of Austria also criticized it sharply: the popular initiative contained not only demands, but also “mere assertions”. In addition, the "mixing of so many topics" is "counterproductive" for the individual concerns, such as the clarification of cases of abuse .
Another criticism was that “criticism of government subsidies for religious communities” was “mentioned in the same breath as sexual abuse”. This is "catching votes at the expense of the victims".
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Justification kirchen-privilegien.at, accessed on April 4, 2013
- ^ Most unsuccessful initiatives in history - ORF.at April 23, 2013
- ↑ a b c d 'State within the State': Referendum against church privileges diepresse.com, February 27, 2011, accessed on August 14, 2011
- ↑ Popular initiative against privileges of the church orf.at
- ^ People's petition against church privileges heise.de, accessed on August 10, 2011
- ↑ Church privileges www.kirchen-privilegien.at
- ^ Clear the way for petitions for a church referendum. In: orf.at. January 1, 2013, accessed January 1, 2013 .
- ^ Referendum from April 15 to 22, hpd.de
- ↑ Popular initiative against church privileges bmi.gv.at, accessed on March 15, 2013
- ↑ Preliminary overall result, BMI
- ^ Text of the referendum (PDF; 28 kB) bmi.gv.at, accessed on March 15, 2013
- ↑ Initiators ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Signatures against church privileges wienerzeitung.at, accessed on August 10, 2011
- ↑ "We are Church" does not support the "popular initiative against church privileges" , accessed on August 15, 2011
- ↑ Sharp criticism of the church referendum: Initiative has "a certain aggression" , accessed on August 15, 2011
- ↑ Markus Rohrhofer: Church referendum: Buntes Atheisten-Allerlei , Der Standard, December 21, 2012
