Traiskirchen’s mayor, Andreas Babler, emerged as the laughing third party at the end of the long-simmering conflict over the party leadership between Pamela Rendi-Wagner and Burgenland’s mayor, Hans Peter Doskozil – and that was ultimately just a counting mistake at the special party congress two days later brought certainty. The conflict with a bizarre ending at a glance:
September 22, 2018: Rendi-Wagner is appointed as the new SPÖ boss. “If she couldn’t resist, we wouldn’t nominate her as party leader today,” says Doskozil, who was a Rendi skeptic from the start, commenting on her choice at the time. At the party conference in late November, Rendi-Wagner received 97.8 percent of the delegates’ vote, while Doskozil, popular in polls, came out weakest with 82.3 percent.
March 2, 2019: At the party conference of the Tyrolean SPÖ, Rendi calls for unity in the party – also towards Doskozil. But he immediately announces that he will continue to express his opinion if he thinks it is “right” – and he often does so afterwards.
Doskozil initiates leadership debate
November 2019: Following the SPÖ’s poor performance not only in the National Council elections, Doskozil declares the SPÖ “unfit to govern”. After rumors of the replacement of the federal party chairmen, he calls for an end to the personnel debate, but at the same time emphasizes: “First comes the substantive discussion, and then at the end of the process you can openly and honestly ask the personnel question again.”
January 2020: In the run-up to the state elections in Burgenland, Doskozil again pulls the trigger against the “thematically passive” federal SPÖ. After his landslide victory, on election night, he suggested that the federal SPÖ reconsider their position on preventive detention, thus starting the next leadership debate.
May 6, 2020: Rendi-Wagner tries to loosen up with a member survey and gets 71.4 percent approval. Just two months later, Doskoziz only “currently” excluded a National Council leader. “You never know what’s going to happen politically.”
April 26, 2021: Doskozil resigns as party chairman, saying he wants to “enable a fresh start”.
Debacle at federal party congress
June 26, 2021: The Federal Party Conference becomes a debacle for Rendi-Wagner. In her re-election, she received just 75.3 percent of the delegates’ vote, barely surpassing the already low bar of 70 percent. Further negative headlines are that the party congress has to be canceled because not enough delegates are present. It is no longer possible to decide on planned amendments to the Articles of Association.
November 2022: The SPÖ Burgenland causes a stir with a survey it commissioned, which also asks how the SPÖ would perform in an upcoming national election with Doskozil as the SPÖ chancellor candidate compared to Rendi-Wagner. SPÖ regional director Roland Fürst emphasizes that they only wanted to query the contents of Doskozi. A little later, however, in an interview he openly promoted Doskozil to chancellor and brought up a survey of SPÖ members.
March 14, 2023: Doskozil commits himself and announces his candidacy for the presidency of the federal SPÖ. In his letter of application, he puts the years of cross-pollination against the federation chairman into perspective: It is not about a “war of the roses”, but “about which specific programs and measures we as SPÖ want to deploy to respond to the specific concerns of the people of Austria ”.
Member survey decided
March 15, 2023: The SPÖ board decides that a membership survey should be held into the future party leadership. The issue of leadership will ultimately be decided at a party conference. As will be decided later in a tedious process, any party member who can submit 30 statements of support should be able to apply. This increased the membership of the SPÖ from almost 140,000 to 148,000.
March 23, 2023: Mayor Andreas Babler of Traiskirchen, who is mainly courted by the left-wing party, announces his candidacy. The Viennese SPÖ politician and former head of “Section 8”, Nikolaus Kowall, who had put pressure to open the membership survey with his candidacy, then withdrew his candidacy.
April 11, 2023: Of the original 73 candidates – including former BZÖ politician Gerald Grosz – only Rendi-Wagner, Doskozil and Babler are still running. While Grosz was rejected, other applicants failed to pass the 30-end hurdle or withdrew their candidacy again.
May 22, 2023: Announcement of the result of the member survey after evaluation of the questionnaires by the internal election commission: Doskozil received 33.7 percent of the vote. Babler received 31.5 percent, Rendi-Wagner 31.4 percent. 3.5 percent opposed all three options.
May 23, 2023: Rendi-Wagner announces not to appear at the SPÖ party congress following her defeat in the membership survey. On the same day it is decided that the decision on the party presidency will be taken at an extraordinary party congress. Attempts by Babler and the Viennese state party to hold a second round among members are thwarted by the party board.
Rendi-Wagner withdraws completely
May 25, 2023: Rendi-Wagner announces her complete retirement from politics. The outgoing SPÖ leader has announced that she will also leave the National Council at the latest by the end of June.
May 31, 2023: Christian Deutsch announces – as expected – his resignation as federal director of the SPÖ with the extraordinary party conference on June 3. At the same time, a 2020 video featuring Babler’s statements about the EU caused a stir. In it, the mayor of Traiskirchen described the Union as the “most aggressive foreign policy military alliance that has ever existed”. Babler defends himself: His wording “perhaps exaggerated”, but instead of discussing “semantic quibbles”, “we’d better talk about how to make the EU more social and closer to the citizens”.
June 1, 2023: Last speech by Rendi-Wagner in the National Council. The outgoing SPÖ leader promotes cooperation between all parties. She also indirectly addresses the leadership conflict in her own party: “We need a new understanding of political leadership that is not limited to the admiration of male power rituals.”
53 versus 46.8 percent
3 June 2023: Hans-Peter Doskozil is supposedly elected as the new SPÖ chairman with 53 percent of the vote at the special party conference in Linz, Andreas Babler is said to be defeated with 46.8 percent.
June 5, 2023: Two days later it turns out that was not the case. The chairwoman of the party’s internal election commission, Michaela Grubesa, announced in a hastily convened press conference that afternoon that a “technical error” had led to the results being mixed up. The error occurred when transferring to an excel spreadsheet. This reversed the result. It was not Doskozil who received 53 percent of the vote, but Babler.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
