Succession now fixed

Stelzer makes club leader Dörfel the new provincial councillor

Lawyer Christian Dörfel has been in charge of the ÖVP club since 2020, and now LH Thomas Stelzer has made him a state councillor.(Bild: Harald Dostal)

Governor and ÖVP leader Thomas Stelzer is bringing a veteran into the provincial government: at midday today, the party executive committee decided that club chairman Christian Dörfel (62) will succeed future WKO Secretary General Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer as provincial councillor. Margit Angerlehner, member of parliament and mayor of Oftering, will be the new club chairman.

Christian Dörfel is particularly interested in the LASK and, as the future integration councillor, will be able to turn political demands into goals himself: The lawyer is considered to be well connected and highly competent within his party. He began his political career as chairman of the Young ÖVP in Steinbach an der Steyr, followed by positions as parliamentary group leader and deputy mayor in his home municipality. He has been mayor since 2002, and in September 2020 he made the leap to the top of provincial politics as managing chairman of the ÖVP when Helena Kirchmayr handed over the leadership of the party.

The first well-wisher! On the way to the press conference, Dörfel (second from right), Stelzer and Angerlehner met the Mayor of Linz, Klaus Luger (right).(Bild: Robert Loy)

Powerful defender of black politics
Since then, Dörfel has endeavored to communicate the ÖVP policies of Governor Thomas Stelzer's team in an eloquent manner. He is not considered a squeamish speaker; verbal attacks on political opponents of the Greens, the SPÖ and the Pinken are not uncommon in the state parliament. And even if there is criticism of his party's decisions and those of the FPÖ, Dörfel always sells them as a success of the black signature in parliament and government.

Christian Dörfel is a retired lieutenant
Dörfel was deputy director of the provincial parliament from 1988 to 2009 and was a member of the provincial constitutional service. He was also a militia officer in the Austrian army, where he held the rank of first lieutenant until his retirement in 2002. 

The change is necessary because Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer (left) is leaving provincial politics for the National Council and the Chamber of Commerce. LH Stelzer agreed to the change.(Bild: Robert Loy)

The nomination of the ÖVP politician was preceded by a flurry of speculation: Several people were named as possible successors. However, August Wöginger from the Innviertel region, head of the ÖVP's parliamentary club, and State Secretary Claudia Plakolm from the Mühlviertel region will remain in the federal capital. Both are considered close confidants of Chancellor and ÖVP Federal Chairman Karl Nehammer and are indispensable. 

Margit Angerlehner becomes new OÖVP party leader(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Sabine Starmayr)

Margit Angerlehner as club leader
In addition to the reorganization in the state government, there are also changes in the ÖVP state parliamentary party. Margit Angerlehner, 51, will be the new chairwoman. She is the mayor of Oftering, a member of the state parliament, state chairwoman of the Chamber of Commerce organization "Women in Business" and is considered a close confidante of Bettina Stelzer-Wögerer, the wife of Governor Thomas Stelzer.