He began shortly after Rendi-Wagner’s freestyle as the new SPÖ boss after the surprising resignation of ex-Chancellor Christian Kern. The following is an overview of the history of the conflict:
22. September 2018: Rendi-Wagner is designated as the new SPÖ leader. “If she couldn’t oppose, we wouldn’t nominate her as party leader today,” says Doskozil, who has been a Rendi skeptic from the start, commenting on her choice at the time. At the party conference at the end of November, Rendi-Wagner received 97.8 percent of the delegate votes, while Doskozil, popular in polls, came off the weakest among their deputies at 82.3 percent.
December 2018: Doskozil tells the federal party, using the example of minimum security, that it should pursue a “more constructive opposition policy”. Even after that, he caused conflict with public statements, for example about preventive detention in the party.
March 2, 2019: At the state party conference of the Tyrolean SPÖ, Rendi – also in the direction of Doskozil – calls for unity in the party. But he immediately announces that he will continue to express his opinion if he considers it “right” – and he often does so afterwards.
November 2019: After the SPÖ’s poor performance, not only in the National Council elections, Doskozil declared the SPÖ “unfit to govern”. After rumors about the replacement of the federal party chairmen, he calls for an end to the personnel debate, but at the same time emphasizes: “First comes the substantive discussion, and then at the end of the process you can openly and honestly ask the personnel question again.”
January 2020: In the run-up to the Burgenland state elections, Doskozil once again attacked the “thematically passive” federal SPÖ. After his landslide victory, on the evening of the election, he suggested that the federal SPÖ reconsider their line on preventive detention, thereby starting the next leadership debate.
6. May 2020: Rendi-Wagner tries to break free with a member survey and gets 71.4 percent approval. Just two months later, Doskozil only “currently” rules out a National Council lead candidate. “You never know what’s going to happen politically.”
April 2021: Doskozil is withdrawing from the party presidency, saying he wants to “enable a new start”.
July 20, 2021: Carinthia’s SPÖ party leader, Governor Peter Kaiser, invites Rendi and Doskozil to a reconciliation talk in Carinthia.
November 2022: The SPÖ Burgenland is causing a stir with a survey it commissioned, which also asks how the SPÖ would perform in an upcoming National Council election with Doskozil as the SPÖ chancellor candidate compared to Rendi-Wagner. SPÖ regional director Roland Fürst emphasizes that they only wanted to query Doskozil’s content. A little later, however, in an interview he openly promoted Doskozil as Chancellor and brought up a survey of SPÖ members.
Spring 2023: After the SPÖ’s losses in the elections in Lower Austria, the debate about Rendi-Wagner – fueled by Doskozil’s statements that the SPÖ is not tapping its full electoral potential with the current leadership – continues to gain momentum. When Rendi-Wagner asked Doskozil to take part in the SPÖ presidium at the beginning of March “in view of the current situation”, he agreed – in order to discuss “future prospects for social democracy”.
March 14, 2023: Doskozil commits himself and announces that he intends to run for the presidency of the federal SPÖ. In his letter of application, he puts the years of cross-shots against the federal chairperson into perspective: It’s not about a “war of the roses”, but “about the question of which concrete programs and measures we as the SPÖ want to use to react to the concrete concerns of the people in Austria”.
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