The Austrian government is on the brink of division after the SPÖ rejected support for the hijab ban law.
The plan of Integration Minister Claudia Plakolm (ÖVP) to include a ban on headscarves for girls in the Austrian constitution seems to be failing after the SPÖ party announced its opposition to it. Plakolm was seeking to protect the proposed ban from legal challenges by passing it with a two-thirds majority in parliament, but that has now become nearly impossible.
According to Die Presse, the parliamentary group of the SPÖ party stated that it supports a "constitutional ban on the hijab" rather than an "unconstitutional ban at a constitutional level." This position effectively means that it is impossible to achieve the majority needed to amend the constitution, unless the harmony within the ruling coalition breaks — something neither party wants to happen.
This represents the second attempt to impose such a ban, after the Constitutional Court (VfGH) annulled a previous attempt targeting girls in primary schools, considering it a violation of the principle of equality. The current version, which extends to include girls up to the eighth grade, faces similar criticisms for focusing solely on the Islamic hijab and not others.
Minister Blakolm is seeking to give the law a constitutional basis to withstand legal challenges, but this requires support from several parties, including the ÖVP, NEOS, and the opposition represented by the FPÖ. Meanwhile, the Green Party (Groenen) has confirmed that it will not support a "unconstitutional" law, and the FPÖ stated that it has not yet received any official communication from the government, although it supports the idea in principle.
Any vote that contradicts the position of the SPÖ party could threaten the continuity of the current government coalition. The coalition agreement clearly states that if any party violates the joint voting mechanism in the National Council (Nationalrat) or the Federal Council (Bundesrat), the cooperation between the parties is considered terminated. In this case, coalition partners will have to discuss calling for new elections — which could push Austria into a new political crisis.