Care support center

Citizens’ consultation in Forchtenstein canceled for the time being

There was a bad mood in the Forchtenstein municipal council.(Bild: P. Huber)

Things are not going well in the Forchtenstein municipal council. The reason for the disagreement between the SPÖ and ÖVP is the planned care support point. The fronts in the case have hardened. Before the vote on a citizens' consultation took place, the ÖVP withdrew from the municipal council. The point of contention was the wording of the question. 

While the SPÖ would like to implement the project including surgeries, apartments and local shops with the state holding company on the former Spar site, the ÖVP and Freie Liste Forchtenstein (FLF) prefer a model that is implemented by a non-profit developer as part of a building rights agreement. There is also disagreement on the question of location.

ÖVP accusation: question changed overnight
In June, an agreement was finally reached to hold a public consultation, and the question was to be decided by the municipal council on Thursday. In the end, this did not happen - the ÖVP left the meeting. The decisive factor was the wording of the question on the ballot paper. According to the ÖVP, SPÖ local leader Knaak would have changed the wording of the question overnight in such a way that it would have been almost impossible to differentiate between the two variants.

"It makes a difference whether 80 percent of the property is sold to the state, as in the case of the care center, or whether 100 percent remains in the possession of the municipality, as in the variant we proposed," said Deputy Mayor Oliver Biringer (ÖVP), explaining his group's decision to leave. He is disappointed with the head of the municipality, as he has once again proven that no agreements can be made with him that are valid for even one night."

Local leader appeals to the ÖVP's willingness to be reasonable
The SPÖ is disappointed with the ÖVP following the departure. For Mayor Rüdiger Knaak, the agreement on the citizens' consultation only failed due to three words in the description of the variant on the ballot paper. With regard to an agreement to implement the project after all, local leader Knaak appeals to the ÖVP's willingness to be reasonable and calls for fact-based talks. The Social Democrats also made a political statement in the chaotic meeting: they announced that they would donate the meeting money to a social cause.