According to the “Kronen Zeitung”, Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (both ÖVP) were asked by the head of government to develop a corresponding package. The Chancellor suggests reducing the age of criminal responsibility. The Greens are against “event-based legislation”.
The defenselessness of the constitutional state against such crimes is unbearable, according to the paper, which is also available to the APA: “We must speak mercilessly about what is going wrong and where the constitutional state does not offer sufficient opportunities to intervene.”
Outlook Nehammers there are three specific fields of action. First of all, the Chancellor points out that teenagers under the age of 14 who commit crimes such as rape or serious bodily harm are not of criminal responsibility and therefore cannot be adequately punished. The phenomenon of youth violence needs more attention.
To do this, more attention must be paid to the role and responsibility of parents: “We have to ask how the state can better support parents in prevention and how youth welfare can be a stronger lever.” However, one must also ask oneself how the parents’ responsibility ultimately leads to liability.
Finally wants Nehammer to remedy the “general imbalance” of crimes against life and limb compared to property crimes. Brutal acts like the one committed against the twelve-year-old girl show that the legal system is not accurate enough.
Green justice spokeswoman Agnes Sirkka Prammer called the 12-year-old’s case “shocking” and said everything must be done to clarify how this could have happened. Even if young people or even children commit crimes, there must be consequences. There are laws for this: “But we don’t believe in making legislation in response to the justifiable shock of this act.” The goal must be to prevent something like this from happening in the first place.
FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl, in turn, accused Nehammer of just turning on the copy machine. The Freedom Party has long and repeatedly demanded that age should not be an automatic license to get away with particularly serious crimes unpunished. As usual, the bold media announcements will not be followed by any corresponding implementation.
Women’s Minister Susanne Raab (ÖVP) sees as inhumane and deeply disturbing the terrible image of women that must exist in the minds of the perpetrators, “which in this case is also imported from other cultures through migration.” She believes that impunity based on age is wrong for such brutal, serious crimes.
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