Doskozil and Babler – “With this dream team, we can be the first!”

“crown”: From the party congress presidency, how did you actually experience this party congress? As a journalistic observer, I think it was actually surprisingly peaceful.
Michael Lindner: I think you’re already tense and the anticipation was palpable in the morning, both in the conference room and in the conversations outside. But I was very happy and happy that we as SPÖ were able to discuss this yesterday in a respectful and constructive way and to make this personnel decision. So that was a very mature and good party congress, with a short but clear decision at the end.

How did that actually work? Why didn’t it crack anymore? Surely you could expect enemy camps to attack each other with hatred, right?
I think it was important to all those responsible – and there were delegates who also hold positions in districts – that we want to come out of the party congress stronger, not weaker. And it has already become clear that everyone has handled the requests to speak and also the atmosphere of discussion very responsibly. And that is why I say that it was a very mature and sensible party congress. Now the next tasks are before us in the direction of team building and interacting with each other. As far as I am concerned, yesterday was a first step and more must follow.

What does this close result 53:47 ultimately mean? Is it just the case in a democracy that you are in charge with 50+ percent. Or was that no longer a non-decision given the scarcity?
My point was that the survey result with 34, 31, 31 was one that forced people to work together and so did this result. Yes, 50 percent and one vote is enough for a party congress like this. And now it’s up to Hans Peter Doskozil to approach Andi Babler’s team, so to speak, and set up hopeful talents in a team solution. It was also important yesterday that Doskozi made this grand gesture and brought Babler to the podium. That was a sure sign that we are now building the project step by step together.

I assume that the SPÖ Oberösterreich will of course have a say in the development of this team solution. But do you also see Upper Austrian social democrats in Doskozil’s team?
It is important to me now that we grow at the top, that we position ourselves more broadly in management, in club management and in general. This is also necessary because Hans Peter Doskozil is not in parliament. We can show that we also have good political talent in the Länder and it is especially important to me that there are enough women represented. And then of course we will also have a say in the content, so we will have to wait for Hans Peter Doskozil’s suggestions.

Now, apart from finding a team and such, how do you think social democracy in Austria should go from now on? What is the most important thing after this party congress?
So we’re actually showing, with both people, with Hans Peter Doskozil and Andreas Babler, that we can be in a good position if we create this commonality now. And thus managed to mobilize the young, progressive, urban environment with Andreas Babler and his movement, and at the same time with Hans Peter Doskozil, we have someone who radiates to the political center and has the stature of a chancellor. And that, conceived together, is really a dream team with which we can also achieve our goal of coming out on top in the next National Council elections.

That is, you assume that Babler and Doskozil will march together, to use a word appropriate to the following May Day.
That is honestly my clear expectation. So if we’ve learned anything from the past few months, it’s that while there may be different shades of content, we’re unbeatable when we position ourselves to the outside world across the board. This of course means that steps are needed towards Andreas Babler, so that he becomes involved in a substantive process for the elections to the National Council, which I believe should also be designed with a lot of participation from the members. So that you can also draw how we imagine Austria in 10, 20 and 30 years and what alternatives we have to offer for black and blue.

What did you personally think of the two speeches by Hans Peter Doskozil and Andreas Babler? To put it bluntly, I found Doskozil too boring and Babler too class warfare. How have you been?
So Hans Peter Doskozil was able to prove that once again with his speech, namely that he is a strong, clear performer in day-to-day politics, in day-to-day political business. And Babeler gave an emotional speech for your gut feeling. And if I put these two speeches back together, I see the dream team for social democracy. They were different but overall I think in a double pack they were the right mix.

So the two speeches combined are the dream team’s dream speech, so to speak.
Precisely!

A final question. You said that you will never know how the Upper Austrian members voted in the previous survey because there are no country evaluations. But do you know how the Upper Austrian delegates voted?
No, you don’t know either. I can’t say either, to be honest.