Prevents being voted out

Association of Municipalities President Alfred Riedl resigns

Association of Municipalities President Alfred Riedl (ÖVP) announced his resignation on Thursday, effective February 25. He explained this in a letter to the General Secretariat and the members of the Federal Executive Board.

"This means that the new election of the President can take place in accordance with the statutes at the Federal Executive Board meeting on February 26," said Secretary General Walter Leiss. In other words, Riedl was only a few days away from being voted out of office. If he had not resigned voluntarily, he would have been voted out of office. He had already suspended his office following controversial property transactions. The politician is accused of having earned more than one million euros through property sales in Grafenwörth (Lower Austria). He is also mayor there. 

The new President of the Association of Municipalities, Johannes Pressl(Bild: APA/Helmut Fohringer)

Johannes Pressl succeeds
Riedl emphasized that everything was above board. His successor has already been chosen: Johannes Pressl, Mayor of Ardagger (Lower Austria), is to be elected as the new President of the Association of Municipalities next week (see video above). The 54-year-old studied landscape planning and trained as an agricultural and forestry consultant as well as a management consultant.

He is the only candidate and on Thursday already called for an additional billion from the financial equalization scheme for the municipalities, as 30 to 40 percent of municipalities will not be able to balance their budgets this year due to inflation and stagnating revenues.

For Pressl, Riedl is a "committed and powerful lobbyist." He sees the land affair as a matter for the municipality of Grafenwörth.

The Austrian Association of Municipalities was founded in 1947 to represent municipal interests. Almost all municipalities and towns in this country are members, which is why around 70 percent of the population is represented.