Mayor Luger – “City cable car in Linz – but not for skiing”

“Krone”: ByWhat has happened to Linz in the past ten years that you never thought possible?
Klaus Luger: Ten years ago I would not have thought that with four very different parties there could be broad agreement on all important issues in city government. There is a fundamental consensus when it comes to the fight against climate change, the energy transition, the strategy to remain an industrial city and that we have become the capital of digitalization.

What do you think is better in and around Linz today than ten years ago?
We have managed to keep the location – with record employment – number 1 in Austria and have set the course for the transformation by combining measures against climate change or for the energy transition with the aim: Linz must remain the most successful industrial city. This is only possible if we become CO2 neutral. Linz is responsible for 15 percent of all CO2 emissions in all of Austria. If we want to remain an industrial location, this is only possible if we can supply sufficient green hydrogen in 2050.

When it comes to soil sealing, Linz is the sad leader among Austria’s five largest cities. Is a reconsideration in sight?
As an industrial city you can easily achieve the highest level of sealing. But the fact is that 50 percent of the city’s surface consists of grassland or water. One option would be to stop building. That is not my approach, because we will continue to need the expansion of businesses and also housing construction. However, we have made a decision in the municipal council: every flat roof of 100 square meters or more must be intensively greened. This will also happen in residential buildings, where we will have allotments on the roofs. And there are places that remain sacred: the green belt is not built on, so you will not find a square meter of new repurposing there.

There are traffic jams on the access roads to Linz every day. What needs to be done here so that the traffic situation will be different in ten years’ time?
It will be a matter of existence and survival to massively expand local public transport in the surrounding communities. With the financing negotiations for the regional light rail and the trolleybuses, there is – for the first time in 30 years – a commitment in the right direction. But that alone won’t solve the problem. The vast majority come to the city from the south of Linz. That means we need the light rail in the south faster, which is now delayed year after year. In addition, other transport systems will also be needed in the future, namely city cable cars.

An endless topic…
Because the federal and state governments refuse to work together. There may also be mental reservations on the part of the federal minister (Leonore Gewessler, note.), who once told witnesses during a stay in Linz that cable cars were out of the question for her because they had destroyed the Alps. But I don’t want to go skiing at voestalpine, I want to see that the transfer situation from Ebelsberg/Pichling directly to the industrial area works within seven minutes by cable car. That will be the future because we have no money for underground solutions and above-ground solutions do not work due to a lack of space.

What do you see as the biggest challenge in your remaining term?
The labor shortage. We need a big push at the federal level where we can get involved. It involves the aggressive recruitment of workers, regardless of their qualifications, from non-EU countries. However, at the federal level, powers are too fragmented and this cannot work. We need a state secretariat for workers’ requisitions.

Keyword term of office: Will you – as many mayors do – hand over the baton to a successor before the next elections in 2027?
No. I have always said that if I stay healthy, I want to finish this period. But of course the decisions about personnel succession within the SPÖ will be taken in a timely manner.

Looking back, is there anything you regret?
(thinks for a long time) It is one of my weaknesses that I am sometimes too impatient with political competition and therefore demanding. Sometimes I also had insufficient insight that others still need to develop further.

As a fan, would you have thought it possible ten years ago that Blau-Weiß Linz would play in the Bundesliga?
No. I even said during half-time of the last match in the second division: this will never work! Thank God I have never made so many political errors of judgment as in football.