Already 611,000 Viennese of voting age cannot vote in the next municipal council election due to their citizenship. This corresponds to 35.6 percent of the Viennese population over 16 years old. According to SOS Mitmensch, Vienna is thus heading towards a "half democracy".

Vienna Election 2025: SOS Mitmensch Demands Measures Against Record Number of Non-Voters

"The current figures show that Vienna is no longer even a two-thirds democracy. And the trend is clearly moving towards a half democracy, where only every second person is allowed to vote. This is all the more problematic as a large part of those affected have been living in Vienna for many years or were even born and raised here," said SOS Mitmensch spokesperson Alexander Pollak, who is calling for rapid political measures for a more inclusive democracy.

According to Statistics Austria, as of January 1, 2025, there were 610,795 people over the age of 16 living in Vienna without Austrian citizenship. This means that 35.6 percent of Viennese of voting age are not eligible to vote. In districts like Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus, over 45 percent, and in Brigittenau and Favoriten, 44 percent each are without voting rights. A forecast by SOS Mitmensch shows that by 2050, more than half of the Viennese population could have no voting rights in municipal council elections. Nationwide, 19.7 percent of the population are not eligible to vote due to lack of citizenship.

"Pass Egal Wahl" Before Vienna Election 2025

"The background for the increasing exclusion from voting is not only immigration to Austria, but also the very restrictive access to Austrian citizenship, with high income-related and bureaucratic hurdles," says SOS Mitmensch spokesperson Pollak. Austria is at the bottom of the European ranking with a naturalization rate of less than 0.7 percent, explains the spokesperson of the human rights organization. SOS Mitmensch plans to conduct a symbolic "Pass Egal Wahl" in Vienna together with partners, where people without Austrian citizenship can vote for the parties running in Vienna.

(Red)

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