TIROLER ZEITUNG “Editorial”, issue of March 15, 2022, by Peter Nindler: “No renewal without competition”
Innsbruck (OTS) – VP chief and state governor Günther Platter must finally allow an upheaval in his party and cooperative competition. The ÖVP needs new faces and impetus. And Platter is slowly becoming a successor candidate.
The Tyrolean ÖVP had to experience painfully at the weekend what it means when a party does not regroup in time. The mayors in their strongholds of Hall and Schwaz were lost. A shot across the bow already in view of the state elections, as is openly discussed internally. Because neither a successor nor a successor for ÖVP boss and governor Günther Platter (67) is in sight, nor is there a renewal in the government. Because it wasn’t wanted before. On the contrary: Anyone who shows ambitions like the President of the Chamber of Commerce Christoph Walser is ostracized in an integrated way. How can he?
The ÖVP has narrowed too much to Günther Platter in recent years. He is still the undisputed draft horse, but not forever. However, the petrification of political power means that there is currently hardly any competition for the best ideas in the ÖVP, or cooperative competition, which Ingrid Felipe, for example, would like to see in the Greens. Not even the change in the ÖVP government team a year ago triggered a push forward because Health Minister Annette Leja is not enough of a politician and Economic Minister Anton Mattle has been involved on the state political stage for too long.
You don’t have to be a supporter of grassroots democracy, but the Greens are already a significant step further with their internal application process for the top candidacy. This creates a certain dynamic, of course political chips fly, there are escalations and complex debates. But grassroots and politicians are being mobilized. This is exactly what the ÖVP lacks and further the perspective for a renewal.
The farmers have just cemented Deputy Governor Josef Geisler, Leja and Mattle have come to stay, Education Minister and AAB boss Beate Palfrader has a powerful lifting stick with AK President Erwin Zangerl and spatial planning officer LR Hannes Tratter with Innsbruck-Land the largest and most powerful ÖVP district behind. The scope for Platter’s necessary realignment, including a signal for his successor, is apparently less. Nevertheless, the analysis of the local council elections would be a good guide. Anyone who, like the Tyrolean governor, has ruled unchallenged for 14 years must initiate a change in his party before his last election, otherwise it may be forced on him from outside. Letting go is usually the most difficult phase in life, but a successful politician is also measured by it.
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