Austrian Campaigners Start Collecting Signatures in Support of EU Exit

According to a representative of the initiative’s non-partisan committee, Austrian civic initiative Heimat & Umwelt, or Homeland and Environment, have begun collecting signatures on Wednesday in support of the country's exit from the EU.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Austrian civic initiative Heimat & Umwelt, or Homeland and Environment, have begun collecting signatures on Wednesday in support of the country's exit from the European Union, a representative of the initiative’s non-partisan committee, Inge Rauscher, told Sputnik Radio.

“This initiative is open for all political parties and we expect a broad support. This is proved by our numerous conversations with the citizens over the past months,” Rauscher said.

Rauscher added that at the preliminary stage, before the initiative was officially launched, it collected some 10,000 signatures from Austrian citizens.

However, Rauscher said that the Austrian media have barely mentioned the petition because they are “loyal to the European Union,” making it harder to promote the initiative.

The authors of the petition regard an EU exit as the only way to make Austria independent of Brussels and return to neutrality.

If the initiative gathers 100,000 signatures in the period between June 24 until July 1, it will be considered in the lower house of the Austria’s parliament.