Klaus Luger (SP) invited people to his “last press conference as mayor” at noon in the town hall. He deeply regretted his mistake of passing on documents in 2017. He justified his resignation by saying that it could not be his “claim as mayor” to make such “one-off mistakes”.
On the subject:
In the days before, Luger had come under increasing pressure due to developments in the LIVA affair. As the OÖN exclusively reported on Tuesday, it was Luger who passed on hearing questions to the later Brucknerhaus director, Dietmar Kerschbaum, in 2017.
At the SP meeting in Langenlois, Luger felt that the trust in him within the Linz SPÖ had begun to crumble. He therefore decided to take action by resigning. On Wednesday, his comrades had expressed their 100 percent trust in him.
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He said he had performed his role as mayor with “body and soul”. He therefore felt “great gratitude” for being able to work in political offices in Linz. He referred to the “good cooperation” with other parties, with which “a lot of progress” had been made in terms of infrastructure. Luger particularly highlighted the stadium solution.
The call for resignation from SP federal chairman Andreas Babler, which was addressed to Luger, was not decisive, said the outgoing mayor.
However, in order to “ensure an organizational transition,” he will not leave office until September 2.
At the end, the mayor thanked his employees. “The commitment was not something I could take for granted, you all gave me great emotional support.” He also thanked his family (Luger entered the room with his wife, Michaela Mader): “I may not always have been the model father or husband, especially when it comes to dealing with everyday life, but I always felt supported.”