Austrian MPs vote to scrap impending smoking ban

More than half a million people sign official petition calling for new law

Guests of a Vienna's Cafe/Bar smoke cigarettes with their drinks (AFP/Getty)

MPs in Austria have voted to scrap an impending ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, despite opposition from health campaigners.

The ban, due to come into force in May, would bring Austria closer to other European countries, many of which have strict regulations against smoking.

More than half a million people in Austria signed an official petition calling for the ban to go ahead, challenging the ruling coalition of conservatives and the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), which has championed the freedom to smoke.

The leader of the FPO, Heinz-Christian Strache, who is himself an avid smoker, says his resistance to the smoking ban is “in the spirit of entrepreneurial freedom".

A demand by the FPO to scrap the ban was written into the coalition agreement signed three months ago.

Now parliament has approved the bill, it must still be approved by the upper house and signed by the president, but it is widely expected to pass both.

“This has not happened before in modern Europe,” the organisers of the petition — Vienna’s doctors’ association and the country’s main anti-cancer organisation — said in a statement, calling the vote “a unique bad example”.

Around 540,000 people have signed the petition, which will run until 4 April, although the initiative lost momentum in recent days.

The petition is embarrassing for the FPO, which championed “direct democracy” before it was elected.

Many bars and restaurants in Austria still have large areas filled with smokers, in contrast with fellow European states including Britain, Bulgaria and Hungary.

According to Eurostat, 30 per cent of people over 15 are smokers, the third-highest proportion in the EU. Around 13,000 people die of tobacco-related causes each year.

The FPO argues a smoking ban would unnecessarily intrude on individual liberty and negatively affect bar and restaurant owners.

Campaigners for the ban say public health is more important.

Reuters contributed to this report