12 years in office

Twelve years characterized by crises

Wilfried Haslauer retires after twelve years as governor.(Bild: Tröster Andreas)

Salzburg's governor retires from politics after twelve crisis-ridden years. The Salzburg financial scandal swept Wilfried Haslauer to the top of the state in 2013. After the interim upswing, his time in office was dominated by the economic crisis, the refugee crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. The Haslauer family was in power for a total of 24 years.

With his retirement in July, Governor Wilfried Haslauer will leave the state with a large mountain of debt. He had already taken on a mountain of debt in 2013 following the financial scandal and greatly reduced it over the years with the help of "austerity fox" Christian Stöckl. Due to the many crises, however, it is now growing rapidly again.