New statistics show:

Who the most diligent speakers in the Tyrolean state parliament are

The Tyrolean state parliament has held 19 sessions since it was reconstituted in the fall of 2022.

(Bild: Jasmin Steiner)

It is often promised that there should be no "business as usual" in politics. This has not (yet) been accepted in the Tyrolean state parliament, as was recently shown once again. The opposition can be pleased about good statistics. 

You don't have to be a particular friend of the opposition or the government to realize this: Following the departure of Georg Dornauer as the "alter ego" of LH Anton Mattle and the departure of Neos leader Dominik Oberhofer to Vienna, the state parliament has become a little less colorful again.

Oberhofer was emotional, Schorsch was polarizing. Neither can be said of the numerous backbenchers in the state parliament. Green Party leader Gebi Mair, FP provincial chairman Markus Abwerzger, Fritz-LA Markus Sint and Oberhofer were often the only ones who "poured" into the government.

The statistics are shown in the chart. Recently, however, the FPÖ leader has been downright tame. Is he trying to bring about an atmospheric change in Tyrol with a view to more and more provinces under blue coalition government, or has he simply run out of steam, as most of the provincial parliament did at the end of the year? With a sledgehammer in his hand, he will definitely not be able to participate in government, as the Tyrolean FPÖ has probably now realized. And they can do the math: Elections will be held in Tyrol as early as 2027.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

Speaking of atmosphere: schoolchildren from all over Tyrol take their seats on the benches in the state parliament every time. Unfortunately, it is rare for them to experience an emotional debate in which arguments are exchanged in a factually correct and rhetorically sound manner and a conclusion is reached at the end of the day. How could it be otherwise when most of the contributions to the debate are read off a piece of paper in bureaucratic style? Certainly, the state parliament should not degenerate into a show stage. But more skillful self-promotion would certainly not be a disadvantage.

Austerity package on the agenda 
Especially as the state parliament and government will probably have to announce an austerity package next year. Expenditure on social welfare, education and health has been rising sharply for years. The new debt will amount to 145 million euros in 2025, but just one year later everything should be back on track and, according to LH Mattle, this figure should be zero.

This may be possible thanks to trick 17: Namely, only the "hot air" needs to be left out of the budget lines "Other services/miscellaneous". Fritz-Klubobmann Sint has identified 308 such lines in the 2025 budget, which, according to him, contain 126 million euros.

The state government could shine more than with such more or less standard budget tricks with real structural reforms. Although it always emphasizes that there should be no "business as usual", it does not give the impression that it is particularly serious about this. In 2022, a new political style was promised with the involvement of the opposition - words like smoke and mirrors.

It will take more than that in 2025 to win over the people in the stands and convince them of the policy.

And above all, it will be necessary to explain how the state intends to repay 1.3 billion euros of state debt without doing so at the expense of young people.