On Wednesday

Lead hospital: special session of the provincial parliament is fixed

The planned "Stainach Clinic" project is expected to cost at least 330 million euros.

(Bild: ARGE Maurer Franz Sue)

Now it's a done deal: the Styrian opposition has requested a special session of the provincial parliament on the Liezen flagship hospital. The prestige project of the ÖVP and SPÖ has been closely scrutinized by the Court of Audit - on Wednesday it will be discussed in parliament.

There is a great deal of excitement surrounding the Court of Audit's new audit report on the Liezen flagship hospital. The several hundred million euro project (a new building in Stainach is to replace three existing hospital sites) was considered sensible in principle, but was criticized in many respects - in particular, the planned operating company was criticized harshly. A short time later, the opposition made a clear demand: There needs to be a special state parliament on the issue.

FPÖ calls for "final stop to the central hospital"
"It is high time to pull the emergency brake on the central hospital. The ÖVP and SPÖ must finally recognize reality: Their prestige project has failed," says KPÖ parliamentary group leader Claudia Klimt-Weithaler. "The central hospital in the Liezen district needs to be stopped once and for all before the regional elections," says FPÖ parliamentary group leader Mario Kunasek.

Parliament must be convened within five days
The two parties have now jointly requested that an extraordinary session of the Styrian state parliament be held - the ten members of parliament required for the request have thus been met. Parliament President Manuela Khom (ÖVP) must convene parliament within five working days; a date for Wednesday at 10 a.m. was set on Saturday morning.

The opposition wants to use the meeting to ensure that the findings of the new audit report are discussed publicly. They are also in favor of forging a "Plan B" for healthcare in the Liezen district. In the course of the special session, the FPÖ will submit an urgent question to Karlheinz Kornhäusl (ÖVP), the provincial health councillor. The other two opposition parties (Greens and Neos) are also against the new building in Stainach, but are in favor of maintaining the three locations and expanding Rottenmann into the lead hospital.