Decree is being prepared
“End madness”: state government wants to ban authorities in Lower Austria Gendern
The stumbling block: In Lower Austria, authorities should no longer change in the future
© Christian Ohde / Chrome Orange / Picture Alliance
In Lower Austria, the FPÖ and ÖVP are getting down to business five months after taking over government business. Authorities are to ban gendering there this summer. The SPÖ is irritated.
In the state of Lower Austria, the government coalition of conservative ÖVP and right-wing populist wants FPÖ ban the use of gender-sensitive language by authorities. Gender asterisks, the inner I or colons in words should then be taboo in official publications, reports the daily newspaper “Der Standard”, citing a representative of the FPÖ, junior partner in the coalition. According to a party paper, the German language should be used fairly again. It’s about “ending the madness of gendering,” the newspaper quoted the FPÖ spokesman as saying.
Decree should prohibit authorities in Lower Austria Gendern
A corresponding decree should be issued to the state authorities as early as this summer, and educational institutions should also comply. According to “Standard”, the ÖVP emphasizes that officials will continue to be allowed to use phrases such as “Dear Sir or Madam” or “Students”. One adheres to the guidelines of the Council for German spelling and this includes the renunciation of the gender star or the gender gap, says ÖVP state manager Bernhard Ebner. It is not yet known when exactly the regulation will come into force and what it will look like in detail.
In fact, the Council of German spelling recommends avoiding gender asterisks, underscores or similar markings for multi-gender designations. The use of gender-sensitive language is “a social and socio-political task that cannot be solved with orthographic rules and spelling changes alone,” according to the Council.
The social-democratic SPÖ, which has two provincial councilors in the Lower Austrian government, rejects the project. “The priorities of the black-blue alliance really say everything about what these two parties now stand for,” criticized SPÖ spokesman for equal treatment Mario Lindner. “ÖVP and FPÖ are copying Trump and the German AfD and are desperately trying to set any issues to distract the population from their own failures.”
Everyone can speak as he or she wants
The fact that a federal state in Austria wants to expressly forbid the authorities to use gender-sensitive language is new territory. FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl railed against the “gender nonsense” he identified on many occasions and would like to ban it throughout Austria.
Apart from the planned regulation in Lower Austria, everyone in our neighbors can speak and write as he or she wants. There is just as little compulsion to gender there as there is in Germany.
Sources: “The standard”, German spelling advice, SPÖ