"Great disappointment"

Dornauer now launches an all-round attack on the SPÖ

Georg Dornauer appeared before the media on Friday afternoon.(Bild: Birbaumer Christof)

One day after his official expulsion from the SPÖ club and the party, Tyrolean Georg Dornauer appeared before the media in Innsbruck on Friday afternoon. He didn't mince his words - as he is known to do - and launched a proper counter-attack. 

"Nice to see you again!" - Dornauer began his press conference with this sentence. And then he also confirmed that he had tabled his Tiwag motion in parliament on his own initiative on Thursday.

"I was always proud and happy when Tiwag made a profit. I have always been loyal to this company and have always stood by it. But when proud profits in the 100-million-euro range are made in 2018, 2019 and 2020 and I then notice that the profits in 2022, 2023 and 2024 have even quadrupled - and that in a continuing wave of inflation, then you have to take political action," said the 42-year-old plainly, "the Tyroleans have paid for it. And yes: the excessive energy prices have always been a thorn in Dornauer's side. 

Apparently, the ÖVP dictate was adopted and the SPÖ chairman must have lost his tongue over the summer.

Georg Dornauer

"It's a case of hidden tax collection"
And then Dornauer reviewed the past few months. In August, he announced several times in the media that he would take up the cause and do something about it politically. "Because the government has been failing in its energy price policy for years. My analysis of this: Profit maximization is at the heart of our state-owned energy supplier and it is actually a case of hidden tax collection," the 42-year-old describes and states: "In terms of regulatory policy, the state of Tyrol can very well react."

He sent his first proposal to the SPÖ provincial parliamentary group by email - asking them to examine, support and negotiate with the coalition partner. Naturally, this was not his job, there were coalition committees for that. However, from Dornauer's point of view, the SPÖ provincial parliamentary club had only dealt with this issue "half-heartedly" and he had also not referred to it directly at the club meeting in mid-September.

"It was only after I followed up and asked when we would finally discuss the motions for the October parliamentary session in our SPÖ parliamentary club. There was no proposal and no incredibly intensive discussion on the concept I submitted. Obviously, the ÖVP dictate was adopted, they were able to assert themselves and the SPÖ chairman obviously lost his political voice over the summer. I still don't know what his current position is on this issue. I only know that in the summer of 2023/24, during the summer tours as ÖGB chairman, he directly called for a 90% levy on such excess profits in the interests of distributive justice," said Dornauer. 

"The disappointment with my own party is huge," emphasized Dornauer.(Bild: Birbaumer Christof)

"This plan was not negotiable"
This was followed by a meeting between Jakob Wolf (ÖVP) and Elisabeth Fleischanderl (SPÖ), the two club directors, and Dornauer. "I tried to work on a compromise. Then Jakob Wolf submitted a motion to me," the politician explains. He presented the draft of the motion text, which was offered to him as the final variant, to the media representatives. "It was clear then that, as a member of parliament, I would not be fobbed off with a wishy-washy motion. Much of it has already been implemented and point two is a matter of course." Negotiations then continued for days. 

"I wanted 100 million euros of these excess profits to be transferred back to Tyrolean households. I can be accused of populism here, but I certainly stand by this demand. And I have always emphasized that we can talk - for example about the amount of this demand or the modalities of this payment, but not about the fact," explained Dornauer, "but all of this was rejected. In my opinion, it is the most fundamental task of a social democratic party to make policies for which it has a mandate or a mission. That's what I did and ultimately submitted my motion independently". The procedure was completely clean and correct. 

Objection? "One week to think about it"
He also addressed the Tyrolean SPÖ's arguments regarding his exclusion. "The reason given was that I had endangered the party and also the cooperation of the coalition. I take note of that for the time being," he emphasized, "I am now considering for a week whether I will appeal against it. I don't think the expulsion would hold - in the end, the wrong committee deliberated and decided. There was never any immediate damage that needed to be averted. And an arbitration tribunal should have been initiated, as provided for in our statutes," the politician is convinced, "but the leadership team has probably not been in office long enough to have looked at such fundamental cornerstones of our party structure again. And: "Too much loyalty to the pact is also a sale of one's own principles."

One thing is certain: "They may have ruled out Dornauer now, but they certainly haven't got rid of him. I will continue to do justice to my voters' mandate - I will continue to work as a 'free mandatary' or 'wild MP'. I will continue to offer the people who voted for me the policies they are used to - namely policies with a clear edge and in the interests of the province of Tyrol. And the future will show everything else."

Great disappointment present
The disappointment with his own party is "very great". "I have always shown a certain resilience factor. I've been announcing since the summer that I was going to take something on, I haven't heard anything from my party for six weeks and I wasn't warned that if I went ahead politically, an expulsion would be enforced. I took note of this on Thursday evening in southern Germany, hence my statement today. There are no personal sensitivities in politics, that's clear," emphasized Dornauer.

Own list - yes or no?
Is he planning to draw up his own list? "I've been an active social democrat for decades, probably one of the most active in fact. I'm not a quick changer from one party to another. But admittedly: The total of declarations of support I would have needed for my own list in 2022 have been on my cell phone for 24 hours," Dornauer reveals. Is he now categorically ruling out his own list for 2027? "I'm 42 years old, I have around 10,000 preferential votes - that's probably more preferential votes than all SPÖ MPs achieved together in 2022. I have a proper mandate, which I am exercising. I can still walk through Maria-Theresien-Straße as well as through Reutte and East Tyrol and I am still very popular. This makes me feel that I am well on the way to doing politics for the country until 2027," replied the politician.