33 votes difference

New head of Maria Alm: “I’m a club bully”

Election winner Rudolf Müllner from the WPM(Bild: Müllner)

(Bild: Roland Hölzl)

Only 33 votes sealed the change of office in the Pinzgau tourism village. The change of village leader will take place on April 2.

It was a razor-thin victory for Rudolf Müllner: he only won the mayoral race in the tourist village with 2,245 inhabitants by 33 votes against the incumbent mayor Hermann Rohrmoser from the SPÖ - the brother of the head of Saalfelden had himself won the office rather surprisingly in 2019. The special thing about Maria Alm: the three groups received a similar number of votes - between 35 and 31 percent.

Maria Alm(Bild: Roland Hölzl)

Müllner's words on his election victory in the "Krone" interview are rather modest: "I've been active in municipal politics for 15 years, I was already deputy mayor, now I've become mayor." But he also emphasizes: "It's a great honour and something very special."

Müllner wants to introduce a kind of "Hoamat card"
His formula for success? "I'm a club bully, people know me and my straightforward manner." By winning the election, Müllner is following in the footsteps of former mayor Alois Gadenstätter, who founded the "Wählergemeinschaft Pro Maria Alm" list 15 years ago, with which Müllner has now won office. "We want to do honest politics, not like the big parties. We want a good mix between tourism and social issues." Müllner not only wants to boost tourism, but also do more for locals. The master plumber, who works for the Hasenauer company, has already come up with an idea: a kind of "Hoamatkarte", like the one that already exists in Großarl. "So that people have easier and cheaper access to the infrastructure," he says.