The Green top candidate Lena Schilling At 23 years old, she is also by far the youngest person to top the list. All other electoral lists are led by men between the ages of 55 and 69. Two of them already sit in the EU Parliament, two are moving from the National Council to Strasbourg. Four of the six candidates come from Vienna.
The FPÖ top candidate has the longest experience on the European stage Harald Vilimsky, he has held an EU parliamentary mandate for ten years. The SPÖ list leader Andreas Schieder has been sitting in the European Parliament for five years and, like Vilimsky, leads his party’s delegation there. This time, the oldest of the EU’s top candidates comes from the pink ranks: Helmut Brandstätter celebrated his 69th birthday this week. Overall, the average age of the parties’ driving forces is 54.5 years, and it is driven by Lena Schilling – without the 23-year-old, it would be over 60 years old.
Short biographies of the top candidates:
ÖVP: Reinhold Lopatka
Image: ROBERT JAEGER (APA)
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Image: ROBERT JAEGER (APA)
Loptaka is a newcomer to the EU ranks – but has a wealth of parliamentary and international experience. The 64-year-old collected these as a Styrian state parliament member, long-time member of the National Council, club chairman and state secretary – including in the Foreign Ministry. While Lopatka has been quiet domestically in recent years, he has been active as the ÖVP’s foreign policy and EU spokesman on the international stage: including in the Parliamentary Assemblies of the Council of Europe and the OSCE. The thoroughbred politician and passionate marathon runner is considered a networking artist and loyal party politician. As such, as the future head of the delegation, he should once once more ensure a consistent line for the ÖVP troops following the departure of the prominent internal party critic Othmar Karas. The studied lawyer and theologian is married and has three sons.
