“Very pleased” – staff, presidium, party congress: Babler’s first day

After the first meeting of the Presidium, the new SPÖ boss Andreas Babler reported that the atmosphere was positive and that the resulting drive should be lived to the full.

The majority of party greats appeared for the presidency, and individuals such as the governor of Carinthia, Peter Kaiser, and the Tyrolean vice-governor Georg Dornauer could be connected via video. The Styrian head of state Anton Lang had apologized. The governor of Burgenland, Hans Peter Doskozil, is not part of the presidium.

Sapetschnig temporarily takes over as federal manager
Babler described the atmosphere in the nearly 2.5 hour session as “fantastic”. All decisions were made unanimously. A personnel package has not yet been announced. The new party leader wants to submit this to the responsible bodies first, so in the case of the club leader at the general membership meeting of the club, which is scheduled for next Tuesday, and in the case of the federal manager at the party board, that will probably come next week together.

At least Babeler hopes so. Until then, Executive Secretary Organization Christian Sapetschnig is interim contact person and coordinator.

The SPÖ boss must also make it clear next week whether he will keep his position as mayor of Traiskirchen. In any case, it gives the impression that this is the case, since Babeler emphasized that it was already clear in advance that both roles could be fulfilled at the same time, at least for the time being.

The session also dealt with the chaos of the party congress, where Hans Peter Doskozil was named chairman due to an input error. Apparently the votes were wrongly counted as deletions and the result flipped.

Babler welcomed with applause in Löwelstrasse
In any case, before and after the meeting, the members of the Executive Committee were under the impression that new times can now dawn. For example, outgoing FSG boss Ranier Wimmer was “very pleased” with Babler as boss. Gabriele Sprickler-Falschlunger, the outgoing state chairman of Vorarlberg, on the other hand, expects Babler to “bring dynamism to the party”.

The new boss had already visited the party headquarters in Löwelstraße in the morning to exchange ideas with their employees for almost an hour. The SPÖ boss was received with prolonged applause.

Loewelstrasse is not entirely new territory for Babler, as he said he was there often when he was youth secretary. Nevertheless, not only the employees but also the building were presented to him on Wednesday. In the room is an extract of the SPÖ from the legendary headquarters because it no longer corresponds to modern working conditions.

Before being elected, Baber did not want to commit to these plans. Among other things, he wanted to clarify this question with those involved, i.e. the employees.

On Wednesday, he expressed his appreciation for them and announced that he would like to visit all political districts during his summer tour. After the presidency he stated that he also wanted to use this trip to recruit members. In late autumn, the SPÖ also regularly holds a party congress.

Mister and Holzleitner in favorite role
As for personal details, the favorites for the club are female boss Eva Maria Holzleitner and environmental spokeswoman Julia Herr. While the former expressed support for the party’s departure under Babler, Herr was unwilling to comment to the media.

She is also an option for HQ, as is Willi Mernyi, chief secretary of the Austrian trade union federation, who has been asked for the position several times but has so far turned it down. This time too, it doesn’t look like he’s attracted to Löwelstrasse.