According to sources it was stated that under a law passed in 2015, Austria was due to bring in a total ban this May, but now its new government of the conservatives and the far right Freedom Party have scrapped the plans. Meanwhile the move was spearheaded by the leader of the Freedom Party, Austria's Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, himself a smoker, who told parliament last month that it was about freedom of choice.
Heinz said restaurants should be free to decide if they want to have smoking sections, where "a citizen has the possibility to decide perhaps to enjoy a cigarette or a pipe or a cigar with their coffee" and moreover the move has horrified Austria's medical establishment. Dr Manfred Neuberger, professor emeritus at the Medical University of Vienna, says it is "a public health disaster".
Further Dr. Neuberger says Austria already has "shamefully high"
smoking rates among young people, "particularly compared to other high
income countries". Presently the Vienna Chamber of Physicians and Austrian
Cancer Aid are launching a petition calling on the government to reconsider.
Accordingly Dr. Thomas Szekeres, the head of the Austrian and Vienna Chamber of
Physicians, says they "don't understand why the government wants to step
back and allow smoking".
