A few days before the National Council elections, Burgenland’s governor and SP regional party leader Hans Peter Doskozil is focusing on a positive result for the SPÖ. From Burgenland’s perspective, everything will be done to keep the two mandates, he stressed in an APA interview. As far as federal party leader Andreas Babler is concerned, he struck a conciliatory tone. If the party is negative, things will have to be discussed, but he did not demand Babler’s immediate resignation.
“Everyone wants us to come first and have the chancellor,” but the situation is not easy, said Doskozil: “If there is a plus in front of the result, you have to be happy.” If this is not the case, you have to learn from it. “Of course, a minus is a difficult situation. The worst result would really shake up the party.”
However, he does not believe that Babler should immediately resign from the chairmanship: “I don’t see it that way.” If the result is negative, it would be necessary to discuss things like power blocs and democratization of the party. “But not at this point in time,” now we need to concentrate on the election, explained Doskozil.
The regional party is also doing everything it can to achieve a positive result: “We are on board because we are doing everything we can to keep our two mandates so that our candidates can travel to Vienna with our Burgenland politics.” He was surprised by the “interjection” of the Second President of the National Council, Doris Bures, on the draft election program, as she had admonished others in the past. He did not want to judge what tactics might be behind this.
Will defend Absolute
Doskozil himself wants to defend the SPÖ’s absolute majority in Burgenland in the state elections in January and continue the “coalition with the people”. “Stability in the issues and in the budget, the people can rely on that,” announced the governor. Many projects have already been implemented, he said, referring to issues such as health and care, free kindergarten and the minimum wage. He also announced a model for an energy price guarantee for the autumn and “something else will be put on the table” at the start of the election campaign.
The governor admitted that balancing the land use necessary to secure the economic location with nature conservation is a balancing act. Appropriate regulations are needed for this, such as those for new supermarkets in Burgenland. He also announced plans for the renaturation of building ruins.
The goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2030 is still valid, stressed Doskozil. His rejection of the CO2 tax is not a contradiction to this. “Climate change cannot be argued away. But our job is to show people examples and the benefits. Punishment is not a good approach.” For example, electric cars should also be allowed as storage: “These are new approaches to mobility. I miss that from the federal government and the Green minister (Leonore Gewessler, note).” Doskozil is switching over himself – in a few weeks he will be the last member of the state government to get an electric company car: “Anyone can do that if they want to.”
The governor does not want to deal with possible coalition options in the event of a loss of the absolute majority before the election, nor with a loss of government seats or a possible candidacy of Norbert Hofer as the FP top candidate in the state: “I am not orientating myself towards other parties.” First and foremost, it is about being confirmed by the voters.
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