FPÖ for "immediate protection"

Kickl takes action: “Immediate protection” in the area of asylum

FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl wants to de facto completely cut off access to citizenship via the asylum system.(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl puts a stop to mass naturalizations. As thousands of asylum seekers who arrived in the country in 2015 are likely to apply for citizenship this year, the current ten-year period should be extended by five years as quickly as possible until further measures take effect. 

A total of 88,340 asylum applications were submitted in Austria during the large wave of refugees in 2015. That is roughly the same number of people as in the previous five years combined. And this set alarm bells ringing for the FPÖ, above all because recognized refugees are allowed to apply for red-white-red citizenship after exactly ten years. 

Asylum should remain temporary protection
The blue party is seeing red and FPÖ party leader Herbert Kickl, who is just entering the home straight in the blue-black coalition negotiations with the ÖVP, wants to de facto cut access to citizenship via the asylum route as quickly as possible. "Asylum remains temporary protection and must not become citizenship after a time limit of currently ten years. Anything else mixes asylum and immigration and is therefore one of the many pull factors for which people come to Austria and which must be stopped," Kickl explained to "Krone" and the daily newspaper "Heute".

Deadline to be extended
However, because a corresponding legal implementation for changes needs "some time", the blue election winners are planning a rapid extension of the time until citizenship is granted from the current ten years to 15 years as "immediate protection". "This would prevent thousands of people who arrived in the country as a result of the influx of asylum seekers from 2015 from being naturalized in the coming months and thus gaining the right to vote. The deadline for them expires this year," warns the FPÖ.