Vienna City Senate and State Government
The Vienna City Senate has been the city government since June 1, 1920 and the city and state government of Vienna since November 10, 1920 .
On June 1, 1920, the amendment to the municipal statute for the city of Vienna, decided by the Lower Austrian state parliament on April 29, came into force, with the newly introduced city senate replacing the previous city council . The law also redefined the organs of the municipal council, mayor, executive city councilors, municipal council committees, district representatives and heads and the magistrate, and created a control office.
On November 10, 1920, the Federal Constitutional Act , the Austrian constitution that is still valid today with amendments , which defines Vienna as a municipality and as a federal state , came into force. It determined that the Vienna City Senate would also exercise the functions of the Vienna Provincial Government .
On the same day, the Vienna City Council , which acted as the Landtag for the first time, passed the constitution of the federal capital Vienna (in short: Vienna City Constitution , WStV), which also regulates Vienna's functions as a federal state in detail; it was announced as the first ever provision in the new Provincial Law Gazette for Vienna and came into force on November 18, 1920. The city constitution replaced the municipal statute, but took over the new regulations introduced in spring 1920.
The city senate is the leading administrative body of the city. Its members also form the Vienna provincial government, the executive branch of Vienna as a federal state. The city senate and state government, as well as the municipal council and the state parliament, hold separate meetings in spite of the personal identity, at which either municipal or state agendas are dealt with.
The mayor / governor and city councilors are administratively part of the City of Vienna / Office of the Vienna Provincial Government. From 1994 to May 24, 2018, the mayor and governor Michael Häupl was at the head of the city senate, state government and magistrate, and since then it has been Michael Ludwig .
Election process, division of departments
According to Section 34 (3) of the Vienna City Constitution, the city senate or the Vienna provincial government (excluding the mayor or governor) consists of at least nine and a maximum of fifteen city councils. The number of city councilors is determined by a simple majority of the city council after the state and local council elections according to § 34 Abs. 2 WStV. The following must be taken into account: the possible variants between the minimum and maximum size of the city senate, the number of city councilors in office as desired by the ruling party or coalition and the resulting number of city councils without a department for the opposition. On November 24, 2015, the municipal council decided that the city senate, headed by the mayor, would continue to consist of twelve city councilors (one fewer city council than in the 2005–2010 term).
After the mayor or governor has been elected, the city council mandates are divided according to the proportional right to vote , using the D'Hondt procedure , which is also used for the distribution of mandates in national council elections . After the investigation, the parliamentary groups each submit a nomination to the outgoing city senate for the members to be sent to the new city senate. For the election of the city senate members in the municipal council, most recently on November 24, 2015, the majority of the votes of the entitled party is sufficient. When voting, only those votes are valid that are based on a valid nomination. Two city councils are elected as deputy mayors in accordance with Section 34 (4) and (5) WStV.
Not all members of the city senate have to be responsible for business areas (§ 36 WStV). (In the state of Vorarlberg , the state government is formed according to the respective coalition, just like at the federal level; parties not represented in the coalition are not represented in the state government.) In addition to the seven current city councilors, Vienna can also have city councils (officially without any additional information in the function designation ) give; they are unofficially referred to as city councilors "without portfolio" or as "non-office city councilors" to make them easier to distinguish from their colleagues in charge. The non-executive city councilors (currently five) have a seat and vote in the city senate, but do not lead a business group and do not assume any functions in the magistrate; their meaning is controversial. The abolition of non-executive city councilors would (also) require an amendment to the Federal Constitutional Act, Article 117 (5) of which regulates the proportional representation of the parties elected to the council in the council.
In December 2015, only the FPÖ was against the abolition of non-executive city councils, which cause annual costs of 600,000 euros (2016). The FPÖ holds four of these posts, the ÖVP one. Seven incumbent city councilors come from the coalition groups SPÖ and Greens. After the Greens, the NEOS pursued the abolition in January 2016. A two-thirds majority is required in the National Council to amend the relevant federal constitution.
Sole governments and coalitions
Since the founding of the republic in 1918 and the introduction of universal and equal suffrage for women and men in 1919, the majority party of the Social Democrats has provided the mayor and all incumbent city councils from 1919–1934, 1973–1996 and 2001–2010 (1934–1945 there was no democratic city government ). The ÖVP could ask as a coalition party Executive City Councilors 1945-1973 and 1996-2001 under Social Democratic mayors. After the municipal council elections in 2010 , a coalition between the SPÖ and the Greens came into being, and since November 25, 2010 they have had an incumbent city councilor who is also a deputy mayor.
Tasks of the city senate
The tasks of the city senate include deciding on important administrative matters such as personnel matters and advising on applications from the business groups or their executive city councilors, which must be submitted to the Vienna City Council for decision. The City Senate also prepares the budget proposal and the accounts of the City of Vienna annually and submits them to the City Council for decision. (Both arithmetic units also contain the income and expenses arising from national competencies; there is no separate Vienna national budget.)
In personnel matters, the city senate appoints the magistrate director (also the state office director ) at the suggestion of the mayor , decides on the promotion of city employees and grants employees remunerations, which are voluntary payments for special services or merits. The City Senate represents the city of Vienna externally. In addition, the outgoing city senate creates the proposal for the election of the new city councilors after the municipal council election. The city senate resolves complaints from the city administration to the administrative or constitutional court and decides on the responsibilities of the municipal council committees if there are any doubts. In its emergency competence, the city senate can replace resolutions of the municipal council or a council committee in certain cases of urgency.
The city senate acts as a collegial body. In municipal matters and in those of the indirect federal administration that Vienna as a state has to carry out, the city councils in charge are subject to any instructions from the mayor.
Functioning of the state government
The members of the Vienna City Senate have formed the Vienna Provincial Government since November 10, 1920 (since then Vienna has had the rights of a federal state ; the constitutional and property separation from Lower Austria was completed on January 1, 1922). In this case, the mayor acts as governor, the city councilors act as state councilors. The state government is the highest executive body of the state. The provincial governments are collegial bodies in Austria, i. H. no member can issue instructions to another member. Excluded from this are agendas of the indirect federal administration to be carried out by the federal state, in which the federal government or the responsible ministerial minister can issue instructions to the governor. If the governor does not carry out the relevant agendas himself, he must pass on such instructions to the responsible state government member. The tasks of the state government are defined in the federal constitution, in federal laws, in the Vienna city constitution (which is also the state constitution) and in Vienna state laws.
Working method, publication organs
Meetings of the city senate and the state government generally take place monthly in the city senate hall of the Vienna City Hall. In accordance with Section 41 (2) WStV , the municipal director takes part in the meetings as the highest-ranking civil servant of the city administration in an advisory capacity. For the most part, the meetings are only about formal discussions and votes. The decisions to be made are agreed upon in the opposition councilors' inaccessible preliminary meetings of the executive councilors, which are usually held weekly.
The resolutions passed by the city senate and the provincial government (as well as the resolutions by the municipal council and municipal council committees) are published in the weekly official gazette of the City of Vienna. Ordinances issued by the state government or individual members of the state government on the basis of laws (as well as state laws passed by the state parliament) are published in accordance with Section 138 WStV in the state law gazette for Vienna, the legal status of which can be viewed electronically (without guarantee of correctness). The state law gazettes 1920–1934 can be found in copies of the originals on the website of the Austrian National Library.
Members of the city senate and the state government
The following table leads to lists of city council members 1919–1920 and city senate / state government members since 1920 (except 1934–1945).
Use of language
Although the federal state has a higher constitutional rank in Austria than the municipality, the political bodies and mandataries in Vienna are referred to with their municipality-related terms. This is due to the fact that Vienna was a municipality for centuries before the organs of the municipality also took over the tasks of the organs of a federal state. State and local authorities remained legally independent: the state parliament and local council hold separate meetings. Since the mayor and city senate are primarily organs of the municipality, they are elected in a municipal council meeting, not in a state parliament meeting. Only secondarily do they also have the function of a governor and a state government.
Another reason may be that the urban tasks of the city of Vienna are much more extensive and important than the national competencies. The city administration has therefore operated as the municipality of Vienna for decades , such as B. can be read on the municipal housing of the Red Vienna of the interwar period, and propagates the term City of Vienna for their activities today .
Web links
- The City Senate on the official website of the City of Vienna
- The state government on the official website of the City of Vienna
Individual evidence
- ↑ LGBl. F. Lower Austria. No. 307/1920 (= p. 261)
- ↑ Art. 108–114 B-VG, StGBl. No. 450/1920 (= p. 1791 ff.)
- ↑ LGBl. For Vienna No. 1/1920
- ^ Proportional items without associated official business , derstandard.at of October 28, 2015, last accessed on March 25, 2016.
- ↑ http://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/wien/stadtpolitik/795554_Wos-is-die-Leistung.html Non-executive councilors: "Wos ist die Leistungs?", Wiener Zeitung, January 14th, 2016, accessed January 17th 2016.
- ↑ http://oe1.orf.at/artikel/429368 Debate on non-executive city councilors, orf.at, January 14, 2016, accessed January 17, 2016.
- ^ Official journal information on the website of the city administration ( Memento from October 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Federal Law Gazette volumes and search function on the city administration's website
- ↑ ALEX Historical legal and legal texts online
First Republic:
Weiskirchner |
Reumann |
Seitz I |
Seitz II |
Seitz III
Second Republic:
grains I |
Grains II |
Grains III |
Jonas I |
Jonas II |
Jonas III |
Jonas IV |
Marek I |
Marek II |
Slavik |
Gratz I |
Gratz II |
Gratz III |
Gratz IV |
Zilk I |
Zilk II |
Zilk III |
Häupl I |
Häupl II |
Häupl III |
Häupl IV |
Häupl V |
Häupl VI |
Ludwig