Special state parliament

Liezen’s leading hospital causes an election stir

ÖVP State Councillor for Health Karlheinz Kornhäusl

(Bild: Pail Sepp/Sepp Pail)

Hot debate in the special provincial parliament: The match was once again opposition versus provincial government! The Liezen flagship hospital was the bone of contention in the Landstube on Wednesday, just before the state elections. The occasion was the project control report by the provincial court of auditors, which both the provincial government and the opposition used as a basis for argumentation. 

The fronts in the Landstube were hardened, MPs from the ÖVP and SPÖ were grimly opposed to those from the opposition. When Mario Kunasek, the blue party leader, was the first to take to the lectern, demonstrative applause also came from the ranks of the Greens, the dark reds and the pinks, and there were loud heckles from the government mandataries.

The latter dismissed the special state parliament as an "election campaign show" following the Court of Auditors' audit report on the lead hospital. Lambert Schönleitner (Greens), Claudia Klimt-Weithaler (KPÖ) and Niko Swatek (Neos) nevertheless took the opportunity once again to raise the mood against the construction project.

FPÖ parliamentary group leader Mario Kunasek: "We are reading the project control report very critically."

(Bild: Pail Sepp/Sepp Pail)

"We take suggestions very seriously"
As reported by the "Krone" newspaper, Kages is now to become the majority owner of the planned central hospital in Stainach after all - in response to the recommendation of the Court of Audit. In the provincial parliament, ÖVP health councillor Karlheinz Kornhäusl officially only said that the suggestions were being taken "very seriously" and would be "examined in detail".

"That would be dishonest"
Kornhäusl continued: "We could make it easy for ourselves and press the stop button, but that would not be honest and not fair to the population." The total costs questioned by critics? "Around 330 million euros on completion," Kornhäusl promised, referring to the inspection report. And he emphasized that if the opposition wanted to keep all three current locations in the district and upgrade Rottenmann to a lead hospital, the staffing requirements would be much higher: "Where would I get the staff?"

Green MP Lambert Schönleitner: "Everything has been going wrong with the project for years."

(Bild: Pail Sepp/Sepp Pail)

Christopher Drexler was the last to speak: he believes "deeply" that the project is "a good one". The provincial governor acknowledged mistakes, such as an interruption in communication for the project during the coronavirus period from 2020 to 2022. In response to criticism of the model with Kages and Diakonie, Drexler said that they were acting "as if we were bringing in a hedge fund. We are talking about Diakonie, a good partner of the country since 1950."

Just a carnival joke?
Another item on the agenda was an urgent question from the Greens entitled "Carnival joke or populist victim of soil protection?" to Drexler, which was actually about his recent proposal to put the Styrian laws to the test of necessity, keyword "decluttering". In the explanatory statement, Green Party leader Sandra Krautwaschl said: "We thought his proposal was a carnival joke to let all but a few laws expire by 2028. In the case of spatial planning, we would be starting on a blank sheet of paper. In two years, you then want to rewrite around 250 laws?"

Drexler replied that he was actually happy about the "urgency", as it gave him the opportunity to clarify a few things. Many people have the feeling of over-regulation. "I'm making the proposal because I want to make de-bureaucratization and over-regulation an issue in the next legislative period." There are simply things that need to be "swept away". "Let's sit down together and find better paragraphs," said Drexler.