Government confirms:

Wind power referendum to take place in January

Should (more) wind turbines be erected in Carinthia? The Carinthian population is being asked.(Bild: Stift St. Paul)

The 34th government meeting takes place at the Office of the Carinthian Provincial Government in Klagenfurt in cool, autumnal temperatures. The central topic: the wind power referendum.

The referendum on wind turbines in Carinthia demanded by the FPÖ will now be held after all - following initial formulation difficulties: On January 12, 2025, Carinthians will be asked to decide whether they want more wind turbines or not. Austria's first small wind turbine was installed in Lavanttal just last week.

The text requested by the FPÖ applicant - Governor Peter Kaiser (SPÖ) commented: "Many of us interpreted it in a slightly tendentious way" - stood up to legal scrutiny. The referendum in January will ask: Should the construction of further wind turbines on mountains and alpine pastures in Carinthia be prohibited by state law in order to protect Carinthian nature (including the landscape)?

"What the wording should look like was not a political decision. The Carinthian population is called upon to express its opinion on the subject of wind power," says Deputy Governor Martin Gruber (ÖVP).

"The intention of the applicants is clear from the text - we will do everything we can to provide the Carinthian population with information and clarification," says Kaiser.

The voting area is the entire province and the deadline for participation in the referendum is October 22, 2024. The government expects to spend between 500,000 and 600,000 euros on holding the referendum.

"State government in default"
Green Party leader Olga Voglauer calls for "new impetus for a successful energy transition" in a press release on Tuesday morning: "The provincial government is in default and is willfully slowing down the energy transition with its hesitant energy policy - and is even screwing up the subsidies that would bring about a boom in the transition," she says.

The FPÖ and Team Kärnten, who are calling for the survey, are "sacrificing the energy transition with their biased referendum for party political propaganda", says Voglauer.

FPÖ not against wind turbines: "Where they belong"
The Blue Party itself is looking forward to the implementation of its demand: the Carinthian population now has the opportunity to "also have a say for our future generations" in deciding "whether our mountains should be sacrificed to the wind power industry or preserved and protected for our children and grandchildren", said FPÖ leader Erwin Angerer.

Deputy Governor Martin Gruber (ÖVP), Governor Peter Kaiser (SPÖ) and Finance Officer Gaby Schaunig (SPÖ) after the government meeting(Bild: Clara Milena Steiner)

He emphasizes that his party is not against the use of wind power: "But wind turbines should be erected where they belong: on flat, windy areas or in coastal regions, but not on our mountains and alpine pastures."

Team Carinthia leader Gerhard Köfer sees a success in terms of direct democracy: "We have always been committed to active citizen participation and therefore also support any form of referendum. The Carinthian population should have the opportunity to decide for themselves whether or not further wind turbines should be erected on mountains and alpine pastures in Carinthia."