No minority languages in the vaccination campaign in Austria
25.02.2022
The legally recognized ethnic group languages are missing from the current information from the Federal Government on the Covid vaccination requirement in Austria, which is available in a total of eight languages using a QR code. For the chairman of the Minorities Initiative, Vladimir Wakounig, this is a surpassing of guaranteed rights, according to the ORF.
It is commendable that such information is also distributed to households in migrant languages such as Turkish, BKS or Arabic, says the chairman of the Minorities Initiative, Vladimir Wakounig, but why not in languages of recognized ethnic groups? According to the Ethnic Groups Act, the languages of the six autochthonous minorities, Slovenian, Croatian, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Romani, are officially recognized in Austria.
For Wakounig it is incomprehensible why it is always necessary to demand the fulfillment of guaranteed rights. According to Wakounig, many ethnic group members are tired of pointing out that their language is not taken into account. This is because it is about the constitutionally protected languages of Austrian citizens who have the right to be spoken to by the federal government in their own language.
It's a shameful disregard for guaranteed rights, says Vladimir Wakounig. The Minorities Initiative is therefore calling on the Federal Government to also take into account the languages of the ethnic groups in information campaigns.
Original message from ORF click here.
The Council of Carinthian Slovenes / Narodni svet koroških Slovencev (NSKS) criticizes in a broadcast that in the information letter on CoV vaccination "the minority languages of the ethnic groups that have always lived in Austria were forgotten".
"Commendably" the information was also offered in eight variants in migrant languages, such as Turkish or Arabic, but also "the almost identical text in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian". "That's a good thing, because COVID knows no language barriers and is also spreading among the 1.5 million immigrants in Austria," emphasizes the Council of Carinthian Slovenes/Narodni svet.
However, it is not understandable that the autochthonous minority languages have been forgotten. "In Carinthia, perhaps also because Slovenian is not anchored in the constitution as a second regional language," writes the council.
The Council of Carinthian Slovenes/Narodni svet koroških Slovencev (NSKS) is therefore requesting the responsible ministries in similar actions “not to forget the constitutionally protected languages of the state-recognized Austrian ethnic groups”.
