NEOS Vienna

Pink castling: succession for Wiederkehr clarified

Vienna's former Deputy Mayor Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS) becomes the new federal Minister of Education.(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

Vienna's Deputy Mayor, Councillor for Education and Youth Christoph Wiederkehr, is on his way to the Ministry of Education in the new ÖVP-SPÖ-NEOS coalition. On Friday, speculation as to who would take over his functions in Vienna's city politics came to an end. He hands over to two women.

As Krone readers have known for several days, the top positions of the NEOS in Vienna are now in the hands of women: Wiederkehr is dividing his legacy between the previous head of the local council, Bettina Emmerling, and the previous housing spokesperson, Selma Arapović - with the proviso that the NEOS members give their blessing to joining the government and the coalition pact with a two-thirds majority on Sunday.

"Christoph, we will miss you"
Emmerling, who is also the education spokesperson for the Vienna NEOS, is to take over Wiederkehr's functions in City Hall - in addition to education and youth, also integration and transparency and deputizing for Mayor Michael Ludwig - while Arapović is to take over the election campaign alongside Wiederkehr as a quasi-double leader. It is still unclear how Emmerling's position in the NEOS municipal council group will be filled.

Arapović, Wiederkehr and Emmerling at the presentation of the future NEOS trio leadership in Vienna(Bild: Zwefo)

For the time being, however, the NEOS are primarily seeking a separate convocation of the municipal council so that Emmerling can be elevated to office as early as possible. Otherwise, in the worst case scenario, the date of the regular municipal council meeting on April 23 would leave her with only four days of "work experience" until the election.

I have big shoes to fill. I hope to meet the demands that we NEOS ourselves place on a city councillor for education.

Bettina Emmerling, designierte Bildungsstadträtin

Bild: Martin A. Jöchl

Emmerling emphasized that she wanted to continue Wiederkehr's line and, with a view to a "short but hopefully fair election campaign", also pointed out that the NEOS had fulfilled all their election campaign promises from 2020. Accordingly, Arapović gave a foretaste of her thematic priorities: in addition to education, urban planning and infrastructure in particular, in line with her departmental specialization. Of course, she also admitted to Wiederkehr: "Christoph, we will miss you here in Vienna."

You don't have to reinvent everything, you just have to recognize potential and then tackle it.

Selma Arapović,  NEOS-Parteispitze hinter Christoph Wiederkehr

"Life often turns out differently than you think"
Wiederkehr remained vague, saying that the election campaign would be run as a "team". He does not see any problems with communication or a lack of clarity in the distribution of tasks: they have always worked as a team. However, he admitted: "In life, things often turn out differently than you think. If I'd had the choice, I would have come up with a different schedule." However, Wiederkehr does not see any disadvantages in the election campaign as a result and obviously wants to emphasize his new role as Minister of Education.

Wiederkehr also sees no parallels with the former leading candidate of the Vienna ÖVP, Gernot Blümel, who was also Minister of Finance - under heavy criticism from the NEOS at the time, keyword "part-time minister": Blümel did not create any clarity about the distribution of tasks back then, the NEOS do now.