People's request fail: drivers and taxpayers in the Zwickmühle!

People's request fail: drivers and taxpayers in the Zwickmühle!

In Austria there was a registration period for three referendum between March 31 and April 7, 2025, which ended with different reactions and results. While the referendum "Autovol's request: Down!" On 58.201 signatures, other initiatives, such as those against the enrichment by referendum, had to be significantly back with 33,185 signatures. These lower numbers mean that the two referendum mentioned were unsuccessful, despite the alliance between the initiators Manuel Plöchl and Gerhard Lustig. The latter expressed concerns that private individuals use referendum as a "business idea" and referred to the financial benefits for the initiators of successful referendum, which can contribute up to 14,000 euros per initiative when 100,000 signatures are achieved. Small newspaper reports that despite these returns, the referendum against the enrichment has failed.

In addition to these initiatives, Robert Marschall's successful referendum "ORF Household Delivery No", which expresses similar criticism of financial interests in connection with referendum. Marschall is already known for earlier successful initiatives, especially against measures during corona pandemic. As part of a broader discussion about the abuse of referendums and the associated costs for the state, which amount to over 2.5 million euros per registration period, Gerhard Lustig notes that a reform of the referendum law is necessary to prevent private enrichment with tax money OE24

Although all three referendum had exceeded the necessary signatures, due to the low number of voices collected, the initiatives against the enrichment only occurred a weak cut Salzburg24 . However, the reforms from 2018 that should strengthen democracy in this area do not seem to have achieved the desired success: From 67 referendum since then, only 69 percent have been successful compared to over 90 percent before this reform.

The discussion about the referendum will continue to be formative, since numerous initiatives are still in the support phase and the opportunities for participation in referendum were strengthened by digital means such as ID Austria. In a time of social challenges, it remains to be observed how referendum as an important democratic instrument will continue to be used by the citizens: