Safe democracy: Vienna relies on digital citizen participation!

Safe democracy: Vienna relies on digital citizen participation!

Laimgrubengasse 10, 1060 Wien, Österreich - On February 13, 2025, the “Safe Democracy Convention” took place in the Vienna town hall, in which around 400 decision -makers: inside from over 50 cities and municipalities discussed the use of digital technologies to strengthen democracy. The event was organized in close cooperation with the city of Vienna and leading companies such as Samsung and Cisco. Jürgen Czernohorszky, the management city council for climate, environment, democracy and personnel, emphasized that democratic achievements are not a self -image and the city of Vienna therefore wants to take a pioneering role in defense and strengthening democratic values. According to ots.at , citizen participation in the digital era is of crucial importance in order to improve the contact between citizens: inside and administrations.

The conference enabled the exchange of proven practices and encouraged to create standards for digital citizens: internal participation and administrative transparency. Elisabeth Mayr, Vice Mayor of Innsbruck, said that digital tools offer a great opportunity, especially for groups that have difficulty participating in physical participation events. Digitization has the potential to make access to participation significantly easier, without neglecting analog access that is important for equality.

Technological solutions in focus

The conference also showed that it is crucial to act against challenges such as fake news and data theft. Marvin Peters from Samsung pointed out that digitization not only has to be efficient, but also safe. Under the direction of Mikel Gindy, Cisco underlined the importance of partnerships to develop innovative technologies that strengthen the trust of citizens: inside. "The Safe Democracy initiative promotes not only digital transformation, but also trust in public institutions," says Gindy. This was also confirmed by Martina Fürrutter, Head of Advisory of the Innovation in Politic's Institute, which is of the opinion that democracy has to renew and protect itself in order to be up to the current challenges, as is also reported on Safe-democracy.at