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Austria's far-right Freedom Party has collected
enough signatures for a parliament debate on holding
a referendum on Turkey's EU membership and the EU
constitution.
The "Austria, stay free" petition was launched by
the FPO (Freedom Party) on March 6 and closed on
late 13 March.
According to the interior ministry, the poll
gathered 258,277 signatures, above the threshold of
100,000 supporters needed to push the parliamentary
debate on its proposal.
However, observers doubt the chances of the
initiative, which has been backed by 4.28 percent of
the country's voters.
The FPO petition calls for decisions on the new EU
constitution and Turkey's accession to the union to
be made by popular referendums.
A referendum on Austria's neutrality to be clearly
spelled out in its constitution should also be held,
according to the initiative.
The FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache, a successor
of its former head Jorg Haider, said the result of
the petition was an "awesome success," according to
AFP.
He also suggested the law on petitions should be
changed so that a petition drawing a minimum of
250,000 signatures would automatically lead to a
referendum.
But Mr Strache's political opponents have played
down the result of the initiative, with Reinhold
Lopatka from the conservative OVP claiming
referendums would be "unnecessary and expensive," as
they would cost taxpayers €2 million.
The country's social democrats have expressed
similar views, while political analysts stressed
that the number of signatures under the petition is
less than FPO would need to get seats in the
parliament after this autumn's elections.
Out of 32 petitions in Austrian history, the FPO's
plan ended up on the twenty first place regarding
the number of signatories.
However, observers note that the upcoming
parliamentary debate on the anti-EU petition as well
as its media coverage may further fuel the already
eurosceptic and anti-Turkey views of Austria's
electorate.
According to the latest Eurobarometer statistics,
only 32 percent of Austrians consider the EU as a
good thing, while like 80 percent of voters are
against Turkey's EU membership, compared to an EU
average of 39 percent.
www.euobserver.com
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