The members of the Federal Executive Board have now been sent their application by Section 8 from the Alsergrund district of Vienna, which likes to be publicly critical. However, the corresponding application has not been formally submitted, as the section corrected corresponding media reports on Monday.
“We also sent the application to the members of the federal party executive committee for information purposes – however, as a section we have no ‘right to apply’, only the next higher level, the SPÖ Alsergrund, has that,” writes section leader Lea Six. However, the application has not yet been discussed or decided on at this level. This will only take place at the annual conference of the SPÖ Alsergrund.
Signa and Russian connections as a reason
Forcing a person to be expelled from a party would not be so easy. First, the application would have to be accepted by the party executive committee as justified. Since this is probably not a “particularly urgent” case, responsibility would then lie with an arbitration tribunal, which has to carry out its own investigations. The decision can be appealed. In the case of a federal arbitration court, the federal party conference would then be the responsible body.
Party leader Andreas Babler has so far shown little interest in expelling Gusenbauer, nor have other grandees such as Carinthian Governor Peter Kaiser. Only the Burgenland state organization openly advocated for this. Section 8 bases its application, on the one hand, on Gusenbauer’s role, among other things, as head of the supervisory board at Signa, and on the other hand, on his commitment to a Russian organization that is said to be close to Vladimir Putin.
The old party leader himself, who won the Chancellery for the SPÖ in 2006/2007, has so far firmly rejected withdrawing from the SPÖ.
