WK election 2025

Trey: “Business is simply different to politics”

Fredy Trey has been involved in the Carinthian Chamber of Commerce since 2000. In the private sector, he works as an insurance agent.

(Bild: Evelyn Hronek)

The Chamber of Commerce elections will take place on March 12 and 13. WK Vice-President Fredy Trey from the Social Democratic Business Association distances himself from politics and hopes to make gains.

Fredy Trey's career at the Chamber of Commerce began at the same time as he started working as a self-employed insurance agent in 2000. First in the relevant specialist group, then he made the leap to the presidium, where he is one of Jürgen Mandl's deputies.

Working in the Chamber of Commerce also has political aspects. Why not go straight into politics or what attracted you to the Chamber of Commerce?
Well, I think you have to make a very clear distinction. Nowadays, someone who is close to a party doesn't necessarily always have to have exactly the same opinion as politicians, because business is simply different from politics.

How well do you combine your entrepreneurial activities with your work in the Chamber of Commerce? Does one benefit from the other?
Thanks to your contacts in the Chamber of Commerce, you get information about changes in legislation and so on much earlier. It always takes longer on the market, a good two years. Of course, this is also a great advantage professionally.

What role should the Chamber of Commerce play in Austria in the future?
Well, there are efforts to abolish compulsory membership. Which of course also means for me that the chamber will no longer exist. That would be a huge disadvantage for the economy and for entrepreneurs and a disaster for me personally. If I have a company with a few thousand employees, I can afford a legal department and if I have a problem, I can fight through it on my own. Today, if I am a one-person business, I have no representation.

What works well at the Chamber of Commerce and what doesn't work so well yet?
That's relatively difficult to answer, because right now in the election campaign, I meet so many people who rave about the Chamber of Commerce, and equally many people who say: "Why the Chamber of Commerce?" I think the Chamber of Commerce is an important institution and offers an incredible amount to entrepreneurs. But many people aren't interested enough in what it has to offer, which often leads to a poorer opinion.

How can you change that? Do we need to communicate the offers better? How can you convince people that the Chamber pays off after all?
There is so much on offer, so much information. Every year there is a booklet with 180 different pieces of information. You just have to look at it a bit. And you can pass on the information via recommendations.

There are efforts to abolish multiple memberships in several sectors. How do you see that?
That's a decision that the Chamber of Commerce has to make at the very top, from Vienna. Of course, many people don't understand why one person has more than three businesses today.

What do you think the Carinthian economy needs in order to flourish again in the future?
All these issues, such as the shortage of skilled workers, are well known. In the future, if we have a controlled influx of people, we will also have to look at how these people can find a trade more easily. That's a topic that hasn't really been discussed yet. I also think we will definitely have to do something about location policy.

Now you have mentioned location policy and the shortage of skilled workers. Could the Koralm Railway offer a solution to such problems?
I am convinced that the Koralm Railway is an opportunity of the century for Carinthia, but probably also for southern Styria. This will become the second largest economic region in Austria. I do believe that there will be commuters - hopefully from Styria to Carinthia. Because if we were only a residential or vacation province, that would be a real shame.

On the subject of bureaucracy: where do you see potential for improvement or is it difficult at all?
It must now be possible to set up a department where one person is responsible for trade law, another for machinery and another for building permits. In Germany, there are now such small offices for start-ups. You have to negotiate this with the state government.

The Chamber of Commerce is struggling with a rather low voter turnout. What could be the reason for this and what would you wish for?
Well, I would like to see voter turnout increase again and I think that all campaigning groups are currently doing a lot to achieve this. I hope it happens that often. It should definitely be well over 30 percent so that you can get an idea. Of course, it would be interesting to see what the result would look like if each entrepreneur only had one vote, even if there were two, three or more businesses.

What would you like to see as a result for the Social Democratic Business Association?
I think we will definitely achieve a double-digit result. Whether it will be ten, eleven or twelve, I don't know. But double digits is already our goal.

Why should anyone vote for the Social Democratic Economic Alliance now?
In any case, it's wrong to say that business and social issues don't work together. But we Social Democrats don't always agree with politicians. We deal with issues differently in many areas.

What do you think about the issue of work-life balance? Is it a problem for the economy or can it also be an advantage?
We would all like that, including us entrepreneurs. The first word is work - many people get that wrong. The less I work, the less I will generally earn. Everyone wants to go to hospital, at any time of day or night. Everyone wants the electricity to work. So we all have to do our bit. This word is very fashionable at the moment - I think it will change a bit in the next few years.

That's where you differ from the federal Social Democrats - there have already been proposals for a 30-hour week with the same salary.
I used to say that economic policy is different from party politics. You don't always have to agree with your own parliamentary group. I believe there will be a lot of changes in working hours over the next few decades. We will have more and more pensioners and fewer employees - in other words, people who pay into the system. We will have to turn this screw somehow. I don't think we'll stick with the 38-hour half-hour week because the market is simply changing.