TIROLER TAGESZEITUNG, leading article: "Still too many old black braids" by Peter Nindler

2023-07-09 20:00:29

Issued Monday, July 10, 2023

Innsbruck (OTS) – Governor Anton Mattle has hardly had the chance to be the state party chairman of the Tyrolean ÖVP.
He wants to make the party more modern, younger and more urban, but there is still little that can be felt or seen.

Anton Mattle became chairman of the Tyrolean People’s Party almost overnight last year. Nobody in the black ranks had him on the crown prince’s cheat sheet, except for his predecessor Günther Platter. Mattle later used the fact that the ÖVP was below 30 percent in the polls in the state elections. Although the ÖVP lost 9.6 percentage points, its boss could still be celebrated as the savior of the party with 34.7 percent, which was surprising even for blacks. And who is still talking about the historically worst election result for the political force that has dominated Tyrol since 1945?

That’s how politics works. Current events overtake what was and the structural problems. Since taking office in October, the black-red state government has mainly had to be a crisis manager. This applies above all to Prime Minister and Governor Mattle. Inflation, high energy costs, the communicative debacle surrounding the setting of electricity prices coupled with the crisis of confidence in the state energy supplier Tiwag are putting the government in general and Mattle in particular under pressure. The bankruptcy of the municipal service provider GemNova or Matrei in Osttirol, on the other hand, is almost exclusively attributed to the mayor’s party in the state – the ÖVP.

Because of all this construction work, Mattle doesn’t really get around to reforming his party, which was so torn apart in the state elections. To set it up more broadly and to modernize its content. But postponed is not canceled. At the latest in the Innsbruck municipal council elections in spring 2024, Mattle’s new additions will be put to the test. Within the party, the state capital is becoming the biggest challenge for the ÖVP state party chairman, who has been in office for a year. Not just in terms of personnel.

Because in Innsbruck, the ÖVP should have been modern and “urban” with all the associated social conflict issues up to date for a long time. Especially there it is measured against the right to child care. Young, single, cyclist, bourgeois-contemporary and culturally diverse – the Tyrolean ÖVP is still miles away from this “urban style”. Because Mattle himself does not embody this type of politician. He doesn’t have to, but behind and next to him hardly anyone fills this vacuum at the moment.

Much is too homely, at the same time Mattle is growing with the affable dynamic of the 20 years younger SPÖ leader Georg Dornauer competition on their own playing field and beyond. Although Dornauer is anything but an urban burner. If the Tyrolean ÖVP wants to win elections again, they should urgently score points in the cities. That means cutting off old braids quickly.