Haslauer's new role

Governor gives negotiators relationship tips

Prangerschützen, music and the fire department marched in Michaelbeuern for the provincial governors Haslauer and Stelzer.

(Bild: Tschepp Markus)

Wilfried Haslauer advises the coalition partners in Vienna and Salzburg's FPÖ to "jump over their own shadow". Salzburg's governor completed one of the last highlights of his term of office.

After having to share the attention with Karoline Edtstadler and Stefan Schnöll the day before, Wilfried Haslauer had it almost all to himself on Friday. One of the last highlights before his retirement from politics was on the agenda. He took over the chairmanship of the Governors' Conference from his Upper Austrian counterpart and party colleague Thomas Stelzer.

In his speech, Haslauer also addressed the turbulent political days of the past week. He sees the current situation as a "testing time for democracy" and defended the numerous changes his party has made in recent days. Not only is his ÖVP now negotiating with the FPÖ at federal level after all. In Salzburg, too, Edtstadler is now succeeding Schnöll as governor after all.

The day after his succession was decided, Haslauer was given the chairmanship of the provincial governors' conference by Stelzer.

(Bild: Tschepp Markus)

FPÖ leader Marlene Svazek also got on splendidly with but-not-ÖVP crown prince Stefan Schnöll on Friday.

(Bild: Tschepp Markus)

Edtstadler names initial priorities for the state
Haslauer gave the negotiators relationship tips and said that not every turnaround should be seen as a bad thing. "You can also see this as the beginning of an upright effort to jump over your own shadow," said Haslauer.

He appealed for a common path to be sought in the interests of the country: "This applies to both the federal and state governments." This sentence was probably also directed at his deputy Marlene Svazek. After all, the coalition partner FPÖ must first approve his succession plan with Karoline Edtstadler in the state parliament. Incidentally, Haslauer did not mention his handover of office from July at all in his speech.

Meanwhile, his successor Karoline Edtstadler is already preparing to take over the party and power. She will already be sitting in the ÖVP's executive chair from February. She has already formed an initial idea of her priorities over the past week and has defined three points that are important to her.

First and foremost is security, not only in the sense of the emergency services, but also social security, health care and nursing care. "This must be maintained," says Edtstadler. Another focus should be on Salzburg as a business location. She shares the desire for faster approval procedures with her coalition partner, the FPÖ. Her third focus is culture. "Salzburg has always spanned the arc from folk culture to high culture," says Edtstadler.