Flood of complaints

How a cemetery broke the camel’s back

A sepulchral mood in the municipal council: the dispute over the cemetery area and financial management destroyed the trust of the mayor (left) and city council.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Matthias Karasek, Lorant Buttinger, zVg)

The pre-election rhetoric is also getting louder in Hollabrunn (Lower Austria). Whether misunderstanding or deliberate disinformation: in any case, the leader of the citizens' list Wolfgang Scharinger has now ended the quiet phase - the topic is the cemetery and financial matters. City boss Alfred Babinsky regrets the developments. But he also makes no secret of the fact that the fees will rise.

A grave mood is currently the order of the day in Hollabrunn politics: The reason for this is not only a financially rather unpleasant audit report from the state, but also a very indignant citizens' list city councillor - the financial factor also plays a role here: "Years ago, we '2nd class city councillors', i.e. all those who do not belong to the ÖVP, had a special contract drawn up that we must always be informed about our committees," rages city councillor and list leader Wolfgang Scharinger.

"ÖVP runs the show and doesn't keep us informed"
The politician, who is also responsible for the cemetery, complained indignantly that this written "reporting obligation" had not happened when the costs for the coming period were increased (quote: "There are horrific fee increases waiting for citizens everywhere!"). "They even ranked me first for the increase in cemetery fees," he said and resigned from his position. "Then they threatened to take away other areas of responsibility as well," Scharinger fumed. An audit report by the state - available to the "Krone" - also showed the district town to be "horrendously in the red".

Question of finances - and their future development 
"We are more than three million in the red," says Scharinger. "Communication has obviously gone wrong here", regrets city boss Alfred Babinsky. He is taking over the department - but is still "somewhat disappointed". There will certainly have to be increases, he confirms to the "Krone".