TIROLER TAGESZEITUNG, editorial: “Mayors mumble in secret” by Peter Nindler

2023-09-14 22:28:05

Issue from Friday, September 15, 2023

Innsbruck (OTS) – Once again, the community association is exposing the public to the door and demonstrating an understanding of transparency that dates back to the Stone Age. The population is supposed to pay for the GemNova bankruptcy, but responsibility for it continues to be concealed.

It fits into the picture of the floundering Tyrolean community association. The bankruptcy of his service group GemNova took place in secret until the financial disaster could no longer be kept secret. Behind closed doors, the new leadership was also appointed on party political lines. The mayors were left out, the ÖVP and SPÖ party headquarters appointed the president and his deputies. And in camera next week, Karl-Josef Schubert will be elected president and a decision will be made to increase membership fees by 1.2 million euros to save the association.

For the taxpayer it is “take it or die”, but he is excluded from the information and the discussion about the realignment of the association. This has nothing to do with the transparency that Schubert promised like a mantra, but rather with an understanding of politics and democracy that dates back to the Stone Age. If the community leaders want to be among themselves, then they should also take responsibility for the GemNova debacle that they helped cause. For years they looked the other way and did not exercise their control function, but now they are apparently shying away from public discussion about it. Orchestrated by the outgoing mayor Ernst Schöpf.

There can therefore be no question of a new beginning, but rather of a rearguard action. No wonder that the local councils are furious about the aloofness of their mayors and are opposed to increasing membership fees in many places. The insolvency of the GemNova Group with debts of ten million euros is representative of local political misjudgments with dramatic financial consequences. Brought about by high-handed local politicians like Ernst Schöpf or the former mayor of Matrei in East Tyrol, Andreas Köll. The bankruptcy of the East Tyrolean market town was only averted with a financial injection of 6.6 million euros from the state.

At the Nordic World Championships in Seefeld in 2019, all the threads came together with the then community leader Werner Frießer and the costs also got out of hand. There are many other examples where local leaders have miscalculated at the expense of taxpayers.

Yes, a strong community association is needed, especially as a service point for the smaller communities. Therefore, his rescue is necessary. But it has to be a state-of-the-art advocacy group and not a secret society.