Secure democracy: Vienna relies on digital citizen participation!

Secure democracy: Vienna relies on digital citizen participation!

On February 13, 2025, the “Safe Democracy Convention” took place in Vienna City Hall, where around 400 decision-makers from over 50 cities and municipalities discussed the use of digital technologies to strengthen democracy. The event was organized in close collaboration with the City of Vienna and leading companies such as Samsung and Cisco. Jürgen Czernohorszky, the City Councilor for Climate, Environment, Democracy and Human Resources, emphasized that democratic achievements are not a given and that the City of Vienna would therefore like to play a pioneering role in defending and strengthening democratic values. Loud ots.at Citizen participation is crucial in the digital era to improve contact between citizens and administrations.

The conference enabled the exchange of best practices and encouraged the creation of standards for digital citizen participation and administrative transparency. Elisabeth Mayr, Vice Mayor of Innsbruck, explained that digital tools offer a great opportunity, especially for groups that have difficulty attending physical participation events. Digitalization has the potential to make access to participation much easier, without neglecting analogue access, which is important for equality.

Focus on technological solutions

The conference also showed that it is crucial to combat challenges such as fake news and data theft. Marvin Peters from Samsung pointed out that digitalization must not only be efficient, but also secure. Cisco, led by Mikel Gindy, highlighted the importance of partnerships to develop innovative technologies that increase citizen trust. “The Safe Democracy initiative not only promotes digital transformation, but also trust in public institutions,” said Gindy. This was also reiterated by Martina Fürrutter, Head of Advisory at the Innovation in Politics Institute, who believes that democracy needs to renew and protect itself in order to cope with current challenges safe-democracy.at is reported.