Heiligenkreuz/Waasen

Young ÖVP team wants to fend off blue attack

Thomas Weinzerl is the new top candidate for the ÖVP in Heiligenkreuz am Waasen.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Jürgen Fuchs)

Will the ball drop on blue? Heiligenkreuz am Waasen (Leibnitz district) is one of the municipalities where the FPÖ is hoping to win the mayor's seat. The ÖVP is relying on a new top candidate in the short term. This reshuffles the cards once again. 

There have been almost 90 changes of mayor in Styria since the 2020 municipal elections. It is much rarer for a mayor to remain in office until the last day but not stand as the top candidate in the election. Franz Platzer chose this path in Heiligenkreuz am Waasen and made it public last year.

At the time, Christoph Schlager-Kienreich was considered to be his successor. However, he withdrew for personal reasons and so Thomas Weinzerl will lead the People's Party on March 23. The farmer is no stranger to local politics: He joined the municipal council in 2010 and was deputy mayor from 2020 to 2022 before stepping down for family reasons. 

Election result 2020

• ÖVP: 53.8 percent (8 seats)
• SPÖ: 8.3 percent (1 mandate)
• FPÖ: 24.5 percent (4 seats)
• The Greens: 13.4 percent (2 seats)

"Now is the time," says Weinzerl, full of zest for action. He sees a lot of work, for example, in the expansion and development of the school site. But the sports and club house also needs to be renovated and the expansion of fiber optics driven forward. 

A blue candidate for mayor
Five years ago, the ÖVP was able to defend its absolute majority in Heiligenkreuz despite heavy losses. Back then, the FPÖ even made gains in the blue epidemic year. This year's top candidate Gerhard Hirschmann is entering the election with even greater ambitions, with Governor Mario Kunasek even describing him as the candidate for mayor.

Hirschmann criticizes former mayor Platzer for his "from the top down" policy: "We have been close to the people for ten years." In financially easier times, the municipality had put a lot of things on the back burner, and projects such as the municipal roads and the sports building now urgently needed to be tackled.

As the municipal treasurer, he was not involved much, says Hirschmann, who as a member of the state parliament emphasizes his good relationship with the new state government. However, the Freedom Party member also notes that he works very well with the SPÖ, the Greens and a large part of the ÖVP in Heiligenkreuz. And he has known the new black front man Thomas Weinzerl well since childhood - the personal connection is right. 

In addition to the ÖVP and FPÖ, the SPÖ (Arnold Wirthl) and the Greens (Otmar Handler) are also running in the southern Styrian municipality.