After ÖVP election success

FPÖ city deputy falls victim to black austerity pencil

Declared 30 km/h opponent Bors (right) is now being thwarted himself. He is not allowed to become deputy mayor to Mayor Peter Eisenschenk (left). The office is being saved.

(Bild: FPÖ Tulln, Stadtgemeinde Tulln, Attila Molnar)

The ÖVP in Tulln does not want to rest on its laurels: it wants to set a good example by cutting politicians' salaries by 5 percent in future - and the town can now only afford one deputy mayor. This has a side effect: the Freedom Party is losing this very post.

While the People's Party is slipping from minus to minus in federal elections, there is an opposite pole in the municipalities: Peter Eisenschenk won an absolute majority in Tulln for the fourth time in his fourth term as mayor. And with almost 60 percent, he extended this once again last Sunday. "In no other town with more than 5,000 inhabitants has the ÖVP done better than in Tulln," boasts parliamentary group leader Peter Höckner. For him it is clear: "This shows that our course is the right one."

Criticism of the FPÖ's exclusion
City boss Eisenschenk has come in for a lot of criticism in recent years, especially the largely car-free "green square" between the town hall and the Danube has been heavily criticized due to the costs and the loss of free parking spaces in the city centre. Above all, of course, by FPÖ chairman Andreas Bors. The controversial politician himself likes to lash out at the ÖVP and sent an open letter to Eisenschenk at the beginning of January in which he worried about his own future. According to municipal regulations, the second-strongest parliamentary group in the municipal council is entitled to the office of second deputy mayor. An office that, according to Bors, should be cut if the FPÖ wins: "An act of exclusion!"

ÖVP: "Everyone must save!"
When confronted with the accusation, the mayor remains calm: "Everyone has to make savings at the moment. If politicians want people to go along with them, they have to be willing to make changes themselves." The number of deputy mayors will therefore be reduced from three to one. For Bors, this means that no post remains vacant ...