The heads of the federal states met

Alliance for volunteers, against anti-Semitism

Group photo with a lady: Mikl-Leitner received the governors of the other eight provinces in St. Pölten.(Bild: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

The nine provincial governors met yesterday at the invitation of "hostess" Johanna Mikl-Leitner for a conference in St. Pölten. They had concrete - and less concrete - demands in their luggage.

Word games are popular in politics - as was the case at the Governors' Conference, which took place yesterday in St. Pölten for the third time this millennium. Johanna Mikl-Leitner, for example, once again called for a Europe that "performs more and standardizes less".

Volunteering should be "insured"
When it comes to volunteering, the heads of the federal states want to lobby the federal government for better insurance cover for volunteers. This is because there are currently no suitable offers for the 1.7 million Austrians who volunteer "informally" outside of an association or organization. This is a challenge for the Minister of Social Affairs

Concentration camp visit for citizenship
Mikl-Leitner also addressed the issue of anti-Semitism: "Whether right-wing, left-wing or Muslim, attacks on Jews are unacceptable!" More awareness should help here and every school pupil should visit a concentration camp memorial or a Jewish museum at least once. The same also applies to adults: visits to such institutions should become part of the naturalization process in future, according to the state leaders.