Election campaign heats up

Despite the dispute: Why Kogler is also grateful to Drexler

"He's great to argue with," says Werner Kogler (right) about Christopher Drexler.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Christian Jauschowetz,)

The ÖVP provincial governor is increasingly rubbing up against the Greens - but Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler takes a sober view during the election campaign tour in Graz. And he is even grateful to Christopher Drexler in one respect.

Are the Greens, who have been coalition partners in the federal government for almost five years, the main opponent of the ÖVP? Governor Christopher Drexler has been rubbing shoulders with Climate Minister Leonore Gewessler for months. This was again the case on Wednesday when he presented the most important Styrian ÖVP candidates for the National Council elections on September 29, above all Kurt Egger as first on the state list.

Expansion of the A9 south of Graz as well as the S36 and S37 in the Mur Valley and a Koralm Railway stop at the airport: without these points, there would be no agreement to a government agreement, Drexler once again stated.

Kogler on election campaign tour in Graz
At the same time, the top Green was on an election campaign tour in Graz: Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler visited the redesigned Neutorgasse, where the streetcar will run at the end of 2025. "We have known for 30 years that this is necessary. Under a Green deputy mayor (Judith Schwentner, note), progress is being made - with the help of the federal government," he said, not sparing with praise.

The small Neutorgasse as a new cycle lane is something the Greens like: Sandra Krautwaschl, the head of the Green Party in Graz, Karl Dreisiebner and Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler.

(Bild: Jauschowetz Christian/Christian Jauschowetz)

The small Neutorgasse, which recently became a cycle lane, is also popular: "If we say in two years' time that we'll make the road as it used to be, there will be an uprising," he says confidently.

Against expansion of the Pyhrnautobahn
When it comes to the Pyhrnautobahn, he is completely in line with Gewessler, i.e. against the construction of a third lane: "More space for cars is old thinking. Where there is a gateway for foreign trucks, there will be more 'bleeder'." The planned second rail track to Spielfeld is much more important. Then you could create a train cycle that is almost reminiscent of the subway in Vienna.

However, Kogler is grateful to his compatriot Drexler in one respect ("you can have a great argument with him"): Since his push for a national stadium near Premsätten, Vienna's city politicians have also stepped up the pace when it comes to the Happel Stadium conversion. Kogler is open on the location issue, but Drexler must now present concrete concepts, for example on traffic: "Otherwise it's just a flare before the election."

Champions League in Klagenfurt: "The world is not coming to an end"
On the tiresome Graz stadium issue (second stadium, yes or no? Will Sturm take over Liebenau?), he advocates making the province of Styria more financially responsible. Two arenas were built in Linz without federal funding: "They didn't even ask."

The self-confessed "Schwoaze" Kogler is objective about the fact that Sturm will play its Champions League games in Klagenfurt: "The world is not coming to an end. But of course the games would have been nicer in Graz."