Interview with Theresa Muigg: Suddenly a politician
Single parent, feminist, AMS department head and bald member of the European Parliament: Theresa Muigg (SPÖ) suddenly got a mandate in Brussels three years after the EU elections. She succeeds Bettina Vollath from Styria, who has returned her mandate for family reasons. A conversation about anger and politics.
BezirksBlätter: Did you expect a mandate?
Theresa Muigg: I ran for tenth place in 2019, knowing that this is a position that would certainly need more than just a landslide for it to become a mandate.
Many of our readers do not know them. How would you introduce yourself?
I’m 38, live in Innsbruck, I was born in Schwaz and grew up in a relatively small village – so I tried out the urban-rural divide within Tyrol. I became a mom at a very young age, dropped out of school at the time and slowly found my way back into education. I have been with the AMS for the last almost twenty years and have built my career year after year. I’ve had many honorary posts, but my first political mandate is that I’m allowed to stand up.
What volunteer work have you done?
I was in the union, I was very organized in women’s politics, I was very active in SOHO, the queer community of social democracy. My favorite tasks in political volunteering were election campaigns in the sense that you have a direct exchange with people.
Were there any surprises for you in these conversations?
Yes and no. The topics were very understandable. How can I afford my life, how can I afford to live, how am I supposed to go to work when childcare is so difficult, etc. What surprised me is that there was a high level of resignation in some cases, that it could get better. Politicians have the task of convincing people to keep the promise and to make the difference that the man promises possible.
Was there a crucial moment for you that made you go into politics?
I thought about the idea for a long time, but I studied alongside my work and raising children and was always very tight in terms of time. I have always based my work at the AMS on the premise of how can people’s lives be made better, how can you make it easier for them, what opportunities can you give them that did not exist before? But I’ve come to understand more and more that the decisions that create the scope are made in politics. So I thought to myself, I want to help shape it.
How do you manage to work in high politics with a high salary and to represent the interests of a person á la average consumer at the same time?
Every politician should first go into politics because you have an attitude. Have conversations and not make complicated statements loaded with foreign words, but explain what you are fighting for, what is happening there, what the connections are. Of course, these are large contexts with many people and large processes, but you can still support your own basic wishes that you have for politics and explain that to the people.
Do you have methods that you have already prepared in order not to lose this enthusiasm? This attitude?
I couldn’t run any risk. My life was too shaped by things that would never catapult me into forgetting what it means to have no money and no apartment.
The population is disenchanted with the EU. How do you want to make people understand that the European Union is important for Austria?
I’ve always found that it IS too complicated to really understand which decision was made where and where the connections are, and I believe there can also be a political education mandate. It is the politician’s job to know how to explain to people how expensive electricity and gas can be. This WILL be decided at the European level.
A mind game: What should the EU look like once it has fulfilled its mandate?
I think I have a lot of work and a lot of tasks ahead of me. And I’m fully aware that I can’t go there and change everything as a single person. But the moment I say that my mandate has been fulfilled one hundred percent, there is a social union, tax justice, an inflation cap, educational opportunities and redistribution that is so urgently needed.
Which committees would you most like to sit on, what are your strengths?
The question is difficult to answer before the swearing-in (October 17). I will most likely be responsible for the Legal Affairs Committee and the Human Rights Committee. But as a Tyrolean, I have issues that are very immediate and I think that beyond committee work, you can network, bring people to the table, be persistent, and also help shape other issues, and that would be, for example for Tyrol a transit and traffic issue.
Are there also fears of accepting this mandate? And is that what you’re most excited about?
What I’m most looking forward to is being able to help shape and implement the topics that I brought to people’s attention in 2019. My strengths and weaknesses are probably the same: I can’t look back on a 10-15 year political career in which I can say I’ve experienced everything and I’ve already tried myself in different contexts. For me this is a first. But on the other hand, I’m all the more motivated because I think I owe this mandate exactly what I promised.
Does this mean that you will now live in Brussels?
no I will commute back and forth two to three times a month for the number of days it takes to be there. I will spend the rest of the time in Tyrol.
And what does that mean for the AMS? what is lost
It’s difficult for me to go from AMS to parental leave, which of course leaves the possibility open that I’ll return there at some point. I was the head of department for the Tyrol-wide topics of unemployment insurance, qualification and advice. Of course, a twenty-year career comes to an end, the AMS loses, so to speak, an experience, knowledge and also a heart motivation that I have certainly always had.
You wrote your master’s thesis on a feminist topic. Do you want to advance feminism in the EU?
Absolutely. Feminism is an attitude. It even goes beyond the political in that I say, I represent that, I live that…
But that is even more difficult to transfer than the EU.
Yes, that’s true, but there are no deductions. I’d rather get involved in an hour-long discussion than let it be good. I have to say that the talks and discussions that took place in Tyrol on this subject were among the most exciting I had ever had.
During the election campaign?
In the best campaigns. With the critics and I think those were the talks that left the most to the other person.
Have you been able to convince anyone that the issue of feminism is important?
Above all, I’ve been able to convince people to think again and to get away from this very deadlocked point of view a little.
Do you have the feeling that there is a need to catch up on this topic in Tyrol?
In any case. But I also have the feeling that a lot of great women are paving the way in Tyrol and that there is no standstill.
Was it a very conscious decision that you went to the SPÖ?
Absolutely. No other party would have come into question for me. That doesn’t mean that I can’t get along with other party election programs, but in my basic attitude, this solidarity, the principle of equality, feminism are the basic values that I need to be able to stand up and say: The SPÖ is mine Political party .
What are you most proud of in your career?
On what has a lot to do with feminism. In every context you have to assert yourself as a woman. I’ve always done well when I’ve applied for management positions, when I’ve spoken up in discussions, when I’ve proven myself in very masculine contexts. That was always a lot of fun for me and I always had the feeling that it made a very big difference.
What advice would you give to women who want to achieve something?
To have the courage and to have the knowledge that we have so many skills and that there is no position, no mandate and no context in which we cannot be the best. I would like to pass this on to young women.
What made you brave?
trouble I think. The anger that came from the fact that I was denied exactly that for a long time and that I had to fight very hard as a very young mother, as a woman who just walked a difficult path. I think it was out of anger, but out of the feeling of injustice I thought, now more than ever, now I’m going this way.
How old were you when you became a mother?
18
What are your experiences as a single mother? Can you give a few specific examples?
I’ve always worked full time and it’s really not easy to find childcare options that cover that. It’s also a housing issue. You get references because you’re a single parent, because landlords think that’s not the safest of all options and I think there’s a lot of pressure on women that they can’t do it right. Staying at home is wrong, making a career is wrong, combining it as well as possible is wrong.
And who gave them and what advisers do they have to listen to?
I think personally these are people from my family. Women who are close to me, women in politics. Also from the SPÖ. Also individuals, without knowing them personally, who made a path that opened up the very impressive war and such opportunities, eg Johanna Dohnal. Where you just think: That works!