At the memorable Riedergarten Villa in Klagenfurt, currently hosting the office “For Forest”, Denk.Raum.Fresach held its retreat on January 22, 2019 to mark out the program guidelines for the next three years until 2022. It showed that the team wants to step even more than before “from word to deed”. In concrete terms, steps to develop a model region “Villach Stand, Umland and Hinterland” were discussed in order to find answers for the increasing demographic shifts. The team led by Superintendent Manfred Sauer and Fresach-President Hannes Swoboda, supported by the spatial researcher and author of the Nockregion Demography Review, Gerlind Weber, now wants to work out the foundations for a successful city-country partnership under the title “Tolerance works – demographics and migration as an opportunity”. The New Year’s speech of Carinthian governor Peter Kaiser, who wants to step up the fight against increasing emigration from the peripheral regions, proves that this project comes at just the right time. (ws)
