2024-01-27 14:02:25
Every year at the end of January, the Salzburg People’s Party meets for a community conference. This time the Red Bull Arena in Wals-Siezenheim (Flachgau) was chosen as the venue. Around 300 officials came, including Federal Minister Karoline “Karo” Edtstadler, the black members of the Salzburg state government, members of the National Council and numerous mayors from the municipalities. But anyone who expected a swearing-in for the upcoming mayoral and local council elections on March 10th was far wrong. Because State Governor Wilfried Haslauer asked the question of meaning in his keynote speech that lasted almost an hour.
“It’s not regarding who wins the election now”
It’s not so much regarding who will win the election. “I think it’s time to wake up. Now it’s regarding system-relevant questions, like ‘What will happen to our view of humanity’ or ‘What will happen to our democracy?’” The “power of the middle”, as he once once more describes the ÖVP, might be the answer to these questions. But first you have to deal with yourself and redefine yourself as a party, says Haslauer. “What is our image of society?”, “Who are we?” and: “Why are we ÖVP members?” – with these questions Haslauer called out a reinvention process for the Salzburg People’s Party on Saturday. “We all have to redefine ourselves, become aware of where we are and where we want to go.”
Christian social values as a guideline
Of course, the Salzburg party leader certainly gave a direction: Christian-social values are what define the ÖVP. That means dignity, helpfulness, solidarity, forgiveness and responsibility. As a politician you need competence, you have to mean well and work with integrity for a country. “We have to be aware that we also have to work on it,” says Haslauer, alluding to various corruption allegations once morest former and active ÖVP politicians in Austria. The integrity of a politician begins on a small scale at the community level, says the 67-year-old.
Haslauer only touched on the relevant topics briefly on Saturday. “We all know what our issues are,” he says. For example, he called education “our chance of survival, in which we must invest throughout our lives” or described property as the DNA of the People’s Party: The slogan “We must enable people to create property from normal income” was unsurprisingly received Intermittent applause.
And on the subject of migration, he said: In addition to all solidarity and openness for guests and newcomers, one must be clear that there cannot be complete “permeability”. “People from other cultures who are misogynistic and intolerant and who take advantage of our system in order to fight it at the same time have no place with us.”
Clear demarcation from FPÖ and KPÖ
Haslauer repeatedly divided politics into left and right – in order to distance himself from it and get the place in the middle. Accordingly, he spoke – without naming names – of “compulsory equality” that would ruin the country, a “totalitarian system” of the FPÖ that people should fight once morest and “militant nature and climate protection” as well as “paternalism “, which we also have to fight once morest.
ÖVP reinvention: starting signal at the state congress
“Who are we and what do we want to become” – Haslauer is sending his party to find its identity a few weeks before the mayoral and local council elections. The reflection process should begin at an extraordinary state congress. A balance should then be drawn in a year.
(Source: SALZBURG242)
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