Siegele steps down

Greenest local leader with sustainable pension plans

Rainer Siegele has led his home municipality with great care over the past few years.(Bild: Mathis Fotografie)

Rainer Siegele (66), head of Mäder, will officially step down from office on Friday. In the "Krone" newspaper, he looks back on 31 years in his model environmental community and reveals why Health Minister Johannes Rauch never wanted to found a Green local group in the Rhine Valley community. 

"Krone": You are the mayor in the country who has been in office the third longest. Wouldn't it be a goal to become number one? 
Rainer Siegele: That will be difficult, because Walter Rauch in Dünserberg and Martin Vallaster in Bartholomäberg are younger than me. In addition, the ÖVP in Mäder has an absolute majority in the municipal council and we have a very good candidate. I assume that my preferred successor will also be elected at the meeting on Friday. The next window in which the municipal council could elect a successor would only open again in March 2028. I would then be 71 - definitely too old.