Marathon meeting

New head and four new councillors, but only one new face

New acting deputy mayor: Dietmar Prammer (r.) - Tina Blöchl resigns in his favor.

(Bild: Einöder Horst)

Swearing-in ceremonies, questions from the City Senate, a topical hour and a whole host of parliamentary group motions - what had been expected beforehand came to pass: The members of Linz City Council needed a lot of stamina on Thursday in the first meeting after the Luger era - the meeting lasted until shortly after 8.30 pm. 

The swearing-in of the new head of government, the acting deputy mayor and neo-municipal councillor Dietmar Prammer (SPÖ), as well as the likewise new municipal councillors Eva Schobesberger (Greens), Michael Raml (FPÖ) and Daniel Höllinger (SPÖ) - the first three need the mandate for their mayoral candidacy, the latter succeeding Georg Hubmann - took place relatively quickly. However, countless questions from members of the City Senate, the announced "topical hour" and the long list of motions took hours.

Hajart resigned from the Supervisory Board
However, there were no major surprises with the latter, mainly due to assignments to the respective committees. What else stood out? Neo-city leader Prammer sometimes reacted a little thin-skinned in the chairmanship, VP city deputy Martin Hajart resigned his supervisory board mandates - contrary to the course of his colleagues at state level. In future, he wants to separate politics and control in municipal companies. "I will resign from my supervisory board functions in the municipal companies and we will nominate people outside the municipal government. I want to clearly separate my activities and responsibilities as a member of the Linz city government from my control of municipal companies."

New Year's Eve party decision in ÖVP hands 
Exciting at the very end of the meeting: the ÖVP motion for a New Year's Eve party - as reported by the "Krone" - was assigned to Doris Lang-Mayerhofer's culture committee.