Eddy about personnel office – Escalation in Innsbruck: The Greens are splitting up

The Greens – including Mayor Willi – are currently represented by ten members on Innsbruck’s city council. Now City Council members Thomas Lechleitner, Marcela Duftner and Renate Krammer-Stark have left the club and turned their backs on the mayor.

The City Council meeting was temporarily adjourned. City boss Georg Willi was apparently completely surprised. He only said “that he will now handle it according to the rules”.

Trio immediately started with a new list
The resigned trio immediately announced the creation of their own list called “Innsbruck worth living – a city for everyone”. The president of the club is Marcela Duftner.

“For us, the needs of the citizens and the city are paramount. We will not engage in ideological banter, but will do everything we can to rebuild broken bridges and promote cooperation in the city council. Our goal is a city worth living in for everyone, regardless of gender, age, creed, education, health or who you love,” Deputy Club President Thomas Lechleitner said in an initial statement.

Willi’s conversion had been for nothing
The reason for the escalation, which has now resulted in the resignation of the first city council members, was the recent commotion about Willis’s personnel policy. On Wednesday, the mayor reported that his chief of human resources resigned, who had been criticized for the control agency’s devastating report. Willi wanted to protect her from being fired from the city senate by dissolving the office and integrating her into his mayor’s office.

But the FPÖ submitted exactly this application to the city’s senate on Wednesday – and quickly found an overwhelming majority. Only the Greens (two of the seven seats) voted against. “The FPÖ has successfully defended itself against the green electricity frenzy. The political deceit of the outrageous green mayor must now come to an end,” said deputy mayor Markus Lassenberger.

A year of “free play of forces”
The state capital of Innsbruck has had no city coalition since spring 2021. The four-party alliance of the Greens, SPÖ, For Innsbruck and ÖVP had fallen apart at the time. Since then, the “free game of forces” has prevailed, which until now has mainly been accompanied by almost permanent disputes. Willi regularly sees a “right-wing conservative alliance” wantonly torpedo his reform plans, the other parties constantly denounce the alleged lack of team spirit, arbitrariness, what they see as chaotic governance and (media) going alone from the mayor.