An official petition calling for a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars in Austria collected 100.000 signatures in 72 hours, the threshold now allowing this popular initiative proposal to be submitted to Parliament.
FOR TOTAL TOBACCO PROBATION IN BARS AND RESTAURANTS
The petition was launched by Austrian Medical Association (ÖAeK), the Austrian medical order, after the government abandoned, under pressure from the far-right party FPÖ, a coalition partner of the conservatives following the elections of December 2017, a plan to ban total tobacco in the bars and restaurants which was to come into effect in May. The president of the medical association Thomas Szekeres said that this popular initiative petition, provided for by Austrian law, had a "sensational start".
The petition was so successful that signature registration on the Interior Ministry website had to be suspended for two hours on Friday due to overloading the ministry's servers.
This success will force politicians to " reconsider the question“, Welcomed Mr Szekeres. " We will continue collecting signatures and demonstrations of support to increase the pressure »
This anti-smoking regulation, wanted by the head of the conservative government ÖVP Sebastian Kurz, a non-smoker, had been abandoned under the pressure of Vice-Chancellor FPÖ Heinz-Christian Strache, himself a smoker, who had made it a condition for his entry into the government coalition.
Thirteen years after its first attempts to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, Austria remains one of the last countries in Europe where it is still possible to smoke in these establishments. Currently, tobacco consumption is permitted in establishments with separate smoking areas, although this separation is not always strictly enforced, and in establishments with an area of less than 50 m2 if their operator so wishes.
Some 13.000 people die of tobacco-related diseases each year in Austria.
Source : Sciencesetavenir.fr
