For the past few days it has been rumored that “something is going on”. The information leaked out on Sunday evening – and the political bomb exploded: after 14 years in office, the Tyrolean governor Günther Platter (ÖVP) will retire from state politics. He is succeeded by Anton Mattle, former Economy Minister and former Mayor of Galtür, who made headlines worldwide in 1999 when 31 people were killed in the avalanche.
Today, Monday, a meeting of the board of the ÖVP state party will take place in Innsbruck. There, 68-year-old Platter will nominate party great for economic affairs Anton Mattle as his successor.
Galtür disaster: Mattle as crisis manager
The People’s Party wants to go to state elections with the former mayor of Galtür, who made a name for himself as a crisis manager in the avalanche winter of 1999. This should not take place in the spring of 2023 as planned, but now in the fall. Mattle was only appointed to the state government last year after a staff change.
What are Platter’s motivations?
At about 12.30 pm, the Tyrolean People’s Party wants to announce the personnel and the further procedure after the party board meeting at a press conference in Villa Blanka in Innsbruck.
In the previous year, Platter had emphasized that he would run again in the next state election and was aiming for his fourth term as governor. Now everything is different. Platter’s motives can only be speculated at this point.
Party support is declining
On the one hand, he knows that he will never, ever reach the 44.3 percent of the 2018 elections, on the other hand, the Green coalition partner has had a new boss in Gebi Mair since Saturday. Platter no longer wants that, an insider suspects. In addition, support within the party is also declining. Even if no one says it openly, 14 years of LH Günther Platter is probably enough.
A respected political professional
Anton Mattle should now be the new strong ÖVP man in Tyrol. He is considered a political professional valued by all, even across party lines. The 59-year-old was born in 1963 in the homeland of Zams – Platter. Many Austrians got to know him from television in 1999, when he acted as mayor during the avalanche disaster in Galtür and organized the exceptional situation that lasted for several days.
An event that is still very formative for Mattle, as he said on the occasion of the 20th anniversary. By the time the powerful dust avalanche hit the village, Mattle had been the village chief for seven years. Six years earlier, at just 23 years old, he was elected deputy mayor of the small municipality of Paznaun in Tyrol.
In Tyrolean state politics since 2003
In 2003 Mattle, who had graduated with a master’s degree in radio and television technology in 1989, finally ventured into state politics. Since then he has been a member of the Tyrolean state parliament and ten years later he became the first deputy speaker of the state parliament.
Mattle was also respected across party lines for his calm presidency. This was confirmed after the 2018 state elections, after he was re-elected vice president by 35 of the 36 representatives. In the same state election, he also emerged as the “Emperor with preferential votes”, in his Landeck constituency he received 8,012 personal crosses.
Source: Krone
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