The new head of the Turkish city party was a police officer and member of the National Council. The 67-year-old has already moved from parliament to city hall and is now not the executive city councilor of the People’s Party. He took over the management of the party after the Blümel departure.
After his freestyle, he thanked the guests present in the Steffl Arena – the former Albert Schultz Hall, which, due to a failed air conditioning system, did not live up to its reputation as an ice hotspot (it is the home of the Vienna Capitals, note). He accepts the election with gratitude and humility. He wanted to tell the people of Vienna: “One thing is for sure, we won’t let it get us down, we are the Vienna People’s Party.”
Previously, Mahrer, whom club boss Markus Wölbitsch described as a “great captain”, justified his step into the front row or his decision for politics. He is often asked why he chose it. “The answer is love,” he confessed. He reported on the two loves of his life. One is his wife. “The second are all of you.” He was loyal to the People’s Party for 45 years.
The new Viennese ÖVP boss Karl Mahrer wants to change the manners in politics. “Hate and aggression” are too often the focus of political discussion, as he said in his speech. It’s often just about hitting others “below the belt”.
“We come from the people,” he stated, one has to work for people in their realities of life. According to Mahrer, there is a lot of catching up to do in his party: “We have to get much closer to the people.” You have to push politics with heart and mind.
“As a people’s party, we offer a clear counter-model,” Mahrer asserted. Unlike the “arrogant and withdrawn” SPÖ, the focus is not on the town hall, but on the people. “The People’s Party is the true Grätzel Party.” He announced that in the future there would be a responsible ÖVP district council for each district, the “Grätzel district council”. He also wants to set up a “dialogue forum” – in which interested people can contribute ideas.
“Criticism of Vienna is not Vienna bashing,” he also swore. Rather, they want to do everything to make things better in the city. One annoyance is the lack of language skills among immigrants and their children. Here he identified a failure of the city government in the area of education and integration. The latter must also be demanded by those affected. If you want to live in Vienna or Austria, you have to accept the “applicable values”.
His predecessor Gernot Blümel was also thanked. For example, federal party leader and Chancellor Karl Nehammer paid tribute to his merits. In 2015, Blümel took over the Viennese ÖVP, which was marginalized in the city parliament, and led it back to second place in the 2020 election.
Mahrer has also already expanded – namely the squad of his deputies. In the future there will be six instead of three deputy party chairmen, although a rougher castling was also made here. From the old team, only Margarete Kriz-Zwittkovits – she is a municipal councilor and deputy President of the Chamber of Commerce – is still with us.
In addition, Senior Citizens’ Association boss Ingrid Korosec and the local lawyer in the Chamber of Commerce – and former CEO of the Main Association of Social Insurance Institutions – Alexander Biach were brought into the team. The town hall mandataries Caroline Hungerländer, Elisabeth Olischar and Harald Zierfuss were also elected deputy Viennese ÖVP officers.
Chancellor Karl Nehammer described his new Viennese state party leader as a “guarantor for successful ÖVP city politics”. Nothing flattering came from the state party secretary of the FPÖ-Vienna, Michael Stumpf, who saw the people’s party in the federal capital sink into “ultimate insignificance”.