Throughout Salzburg

No village has more full-time farmers than Göming

Fertile and large areas of land are available to the farmers in Göming.

(Bild: EXPA/ JFK)

Lots of green spaces and little development make the Flachgau municipality of Göming a kind of Eldorado for farmers.

The small Flachgau municipality of Göming, with around 760 inhabitants, has a special feature: no other place in Salzburg has a higher proportion of full-time farmers. This is because 20 of the 27 farms - 73.53 percent - are run full-time. "I really have no idea why this is the case," says Mayor Werner Fritz (ÖVP), who has been in office since 2009. He adds: "There is no secret, the farmers are simply doing well."

Only the incumbent head of the village is up for election
One possible reason could be that the existing farmers have enough land available and this is not getting any smaller. "We have pretty much completed the residential construction in the municipality," says Fritz. The fact that little land is sealed should remain so. The head of the municipality is also standing as a candidate for mayor again next Sunday, for the fourth time.

Another reason: almost three-quarters of the municipal area is agricultural land, and around a quarter is used for forestry. There are also several inherited farms in the municipality where there are successors in the family. This makes the municipality the ideal place for an ÖVP mayor.

Fritz won more than 80 percent of the votes in the last two direct elections. The fact that he is the only candidate in the election is something of a tradition in Göming. There has never been a second choice in the new millennium.