"Krone" commentary

Surveillance, tough asylum policy: the order of the day

Christian Baha is a stock market expert and founded Austria's first stock exchange terminal in 1993, which delivers data in real time. In 1996, he established the world's first hedge fund for private investors. Baha has always pursued the vision of making funds for wealthy individuals accessible to smaller investors.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

Our need for security is growing rapidly. According to studies, we felt much safer in Austria 15 years ago. Many people cannot help but feel that crime has become more brutal with the waves of refugees.

In fact, we have to face a permanent threat of terrorism. It was recently announced that an Afghan who had planned an attack on a Christmas market in Vienna in the name of the Islamic State was caught on December 1. Hats off to the great job done by the police! Six months ago, the authorities had already managed to thwart an attack on the Taylor Swift concert in Vienna's Prater after a tip-off from the CIA. Even the security service there had been infiltrated.

Surveillance and strict asylum policies are the order of the day. One reader wrote to me: "Anyone who doesn't like the Western way of life should be expelled from the country"; there needs to be "consistent enforcement" as well as "deportations and residence bans!"

Soon we will be talking about pre-crime departments in our police force. This refers to investigators who prevent crimes before they happen, like in the movie "Minority Report" with Tom Cruise. The aim is to monitor specific people and platforms. In fact, without this valuable police work, we would already have more attacks in Austria today.