Proposed anti-terror law

Austria’s Ministers of Justice and the Interior, Beatrix Karl (ÖVP) and Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP), clarified plans for a new anti-terror law in late Aug.

The law would extend police powers to search databases held online and by foreign intelligence agencies relating to individual suspects, rather than just groups of at least three as is currently the case, and would make inciting or even approving of terrorist acts a crime.

The ÖVP faces resistance from its coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), who fears an infringement of human and civil rights anchored in the constitution.

The opposition parties have expressed similar concerns, ahead of an expected discussion in Parliament this October.