Surprising castling

SPÖ top manager becomes ÖBAG supervisory board chairwoman

Of all people, a manager with close ties to the SPÖ will become head of ÖBAG - a sign that the ÖVP is moving towards a grand coalition?(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Wolfgang Spitzbart, Martin Steinthaler)

She is one of Austria's best-known top managers, she led a technology group in Carinthia into the Champions League, she was repeatedly mentioned as a potential SPÖ candidate for Minister of Finance or Infrastructure. Now, surprisingly, this manager is to become Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the state holding company ÖBAG.

The appointment is remarkable in every respect: Günther Ofner, who has also been a highly successful airport CEO and civic strategist with good connections to Lower Austria's Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner and her ÖVP, has been Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ÖBAG since 2022. However, the chemistry with ÖBAG board member and business lawyer Edith Hlawati is said not to have been the best.