EU election campaign

Lopatka in search of voters in the border region

Lopatka in Bad Radkersburg on the Austrian-Slovenian border bridge(Bild: Vinzenz Wagner)

The ÖVP sees itself as a European party. The lead candidate for the EU elections, Reinhold Lopatka, is therefore looking for common ground in the election campaign. He is touring border regions in the east of Austria. The "Krone" accompanied him to Bad Radkersburg, where he met with local officials and politicians from Slovenia.

The People's Party must expect a big loss in the European elections next Sunday; after all, it achieved 34.5 percent in 2019 just a few days after the Ibiza scandal broke. A figure that Lopatka can't even dream of. But he doesn't let it show, the 64-year-old has been in politics for a long time and has experienced a lot.

The Styrian is a marathon runner and he is organizing his election campaign accordingly. On Friday morning, he first visits Styrian Governor Christopher Drexler (ÖVP) and holds a press conference with him in Graz.

Then it's on to Bad Radkersburg. In this border region, EU membership is viewed positively. "60 percent of employees in local companies come from Slovenia, we need each other. We can't exist without our neighbors," says Mayor Karl Lautner. Bad Radkersburg has grown together with its Slovenian neighbors since the fall of the Iron Curtain. 

Europaplatz is now located between former customs buildings
A bridge, half of which belongs to Austria and half to Slovenia, connects Bad Radkersburg with the neighboring town of Gornja Radgona. Mayor Urška Mauko Tuš came to the meeting with Lopatka. The recently opened Europaplatz, which is located between the former customs houses, is celebrated. And the best thing about it: there is also a Europlatz on the other side of the bridge.

The Austrian Europaplatz ...(Bild: Vinzenz Wagner)

... and the Slovenian Europaplatz(Bild: Vinzenz Wagner)

Recent history is still very much present here. The Slovenian MP Franc Breznik talks about the Yugoslavian war in 1991, when the church tower was shot up and two people were killed. For Lopatka, election campaigns in Styria are a home game. He is known here from his youthful days in the JVP (Young ÖVP). He is often asked about this time. After a glass of Styrian Pinot Blanc and a few rolls, he continues his journey. He drives to Leibnitz, where he goes on the adventure hiking trail with the rural youth.

Lopatka with the Leibnitz rural youth(Bild: Ronald Thekkumcoil)

Lopatka takes a look at several Leader projects co-financed by the EU that have been implemented together with the rural youth of the Leibnitz district. More than 100 interested people hiked up the Demmerkogel to the new lookout point with the future EU mandatary. This was also built with EU funds - with a view of Hungary and Slovenia - from where half a dozen EU projects can be seen.

Visit to a border church 
The leading black candidate has made a special commitment to the eastern border region during the election campaign. On Whit Monday, he visited St. Emmerich's Church, where Austrians and Hungarians celebrate mass together. The church is located in no man's land between Austria and Hungary. Until the Second World War, it was a pilgrimage church and parish church of Inzenhof and Tschanigraben.

Hungarians and Austrians celebrate worship together(Bild: Ronald Thekkumcoil)

A border church with a history(Bild: Ronald Thekkumcoil)

During the war it was made inaccessible and after the war - when communism came to Hungary - barbed wire was erected and there was a minefield next to the church. The church was used as a tower by the soldiers and the church was shot up. In 1990, thanks to the commitment of the local people, a voluntary association began to rebuild the church.