Tiroler Tageszeitung, editorial, issue of May 8, 2023. By PETER NINDLER. "Matrei is like the GemNova".

2023-05-07 20:00:36

Innsbruck (OTS) – Whether it’s an East Tyrolean market town or a community association company: Influential VP politicians have been glossing over the financial problems for years – and the ÖVP-dominated government allowed itself to be lulled. Now LH Mattle must save the GemNova and Matrei.

The financial parallels are amazing, the (party) political implications obvious. The community service group GemNova with liabilities of 6.85 million euros was sent to a judicial restructuring process. With 35.7 million euros in debt, Matrei in Osttirol is a case for insolvency, but the market town must not go bankrupt. That would break a taboo and could trigger an earthquake. Because suddenly public authorities would no longer be considered “safe”. Loans and refinancing costs for financially weak municipalities are then likely to rise significantly.
Of course, the state government allowed Matrei and GemNova to do so with open eyes. Now she has to intervene with millions of taxes: The Tauern community needs at least 6.6 million euros, the community association company 1.5 million euros. However, the financial imbalance did not come as a surprise, both have had their backs to the wall for years. But in Matrei, the powerful ÖVP politician and East Tyrolean district emperor Andreas Köll ruled for decades until the beginning of 2022. He was head of the ÖVP workers’ association in Tyrol, member of parliament, federal councilor and chairman of the district hospital association. And Köll knew how to use the direct line to the former governor Günther Platter (VP) for years.
This is the only way to explain why a devastating financial report from February 2015 (!) hardly had any consequences. In it, Andreas Köll was accused in black and white of “massive distortion or concealment of the actual asset, financial and earnings situation of the market town”. At that time, the debts and liabilities amounted to 41 million euros. Nevertheless, Köll managed again and again to eloquently gloss over the financial situation. Incidentally, GemNova Managing Director Alois Rathgeb was in no way inferior to him.
The president of the community association, Ernst Schöpf (ÖVP), held his protective hands over the service company founded in 2010. He stoically let any criticism of the GemNova bounce off and roll off himself. Undisputedly the mayor, every provincial governor, municipal and finance officer – always ÖVP – needs him as an important link to the municipalities. That’s why Schöpf is indispensable, especially for the Tyrolean People’s Party.
Finally, the parenthesis closes with the question of political responsibility. Whether Matrei or GemNova: ÖVP followers were at work, at the same time the responsible VP government members let the control “glangln”. That’s why LH Anton Mattle now has to pay for everything politically.