Trouble in the Mühlviertel

Environmental lawyer on a delicate mission against wind power

For the state's environmental advocate, a wind farm in Rainbach would be an "invasion of the white giants".

(Bild: P. Huber)

Martin Donat is no friend of wind power in Upper Austria. The environmental lawyer has already made this public several times. However, the fact that he is now specifically campaigning against planned projects at information events is going too far for some. In Rainbach, the mayor therefore calls on the governor to help.

"Wind farms destroy the landscape identity of a region." They are "highly visible monuments to landscape change that literally block any potential for a future in tourism". Sentences like these are printed on the flyer that was handed out at an event in Freistadt on Wednesday. It is an invitation to an "information evening" in the neighboring municipality of Rainbach im Mühlkreis. Martial title: "The invasion of the white giants".

Representative of the state as organizer
At first glance, it is not surprising that opponents of wind power are fighting plans to erect seven wind turbines in Rainbach. However, the fact that the organizer and speaker is Martin Donat, an environmental lawyer appointed by the state of Upper Austria, seems highly inappropriate, at least to Rainbach mayor Günter Lorenz (ÖVP).

I find it particularly disconcerting that the environmental lawyer feels obliged to (...) stir up fears and spread panic in our region.

Günter Lorenz (ÖVP), Bürgermeister von Rainbach im Mühlkreis

"Stirring up fears and spreading panic"
Lorenz expresses his displeasure at Donat's mission against wind turbines in an open letter to his party colleague, Governor Thomas Stelzer: he finds it "disconcerting that Mr. Environmental Advocate feels obliged to (...) stir up fears and spread panic in our region". The market town of Rainbach had "not requested the services of the environmental lawyer" and did not need them, the head of the town said pointedly.

Referendum on June 2
Donat's agitation is all the more annoying for Lorenz as a referendum on the construction of the wind farm will be held in Rainbach on June 2nd. In his letter, he calls on Stelzer to call Donat back and "obtain a clarification of his tasks in his area of responsibility". This is not possible, according to an inquiry from Stelzer's office: "The Environmental Ombudsman is independent and not subject to instructions."