"It's always men"

Bures: SPÖ plight also a question of gender

Doris Bures defends Andreas Babler - his public critics are always men.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA/Helmut Fohringer)

Poor poll ratings, the Dornauer case and a poor mood: the SPÖ is sliding from one crisis to the next these days. Doris Bures, the grande dame of the Social Democrats, has now also declared her party's problems to be a question of gender.

The SPÖ has virtually perfected a practice in recent years: Taking internal criticism to the public. "It's interesting: it's always men who speak out publicly," Bures told the "Kurier" newspaper. She would not take part in personnel debates.

Women have a much harder time in politics: "I still remember the first female chairwoman, Dr. Pamela Rendi-Wagner, whom I supported with the deepest conviction. I know how difficult it was for her, how much permanent hostility she was exposed to."

Social Democrats continue to plummet
The SPÖ is currently facing historically poor poll ratings. At federal level, only between 17 and 19 percent of the voting population would put their cross next to the Social Democrats. To put this into perspective, the FPÖ has around twice as many percentage points in the polls. "We can't go back to business as usual and we won't," said Bures. After years of opposition work, common goals are now needed: "In the SPÖ (...) we need a serious will to shape the future, unity and stability."

If this could be achieved, the debate surrounding party leader Andreas Babler would also come to an end, according to Bures: "If we manage a consolidated budget in the federal government, if we do a good job of governing, then this will also be evident at the federal party conference in March." 

Not always in line with Babler
Babler has no real competition anyway. The red party leader is the only candidate for the chairmanship. The ordinary party conference will take place at the beginning of March, almost two and a half years after Babler's last election. At that time, almost 89 percent of delegates in Graz voted for the current Vice-Chancellor. He had already won the office a few months earlier in a turbulent run-off election against Hans-Peter Doskozil, one of his toughest critics within the party.

However, Babler has repeatedly caused displeasure himself with controversial advances. The party leader recently called for a reduction in VAT on foodstuffs in the "Krone" newspaper, contrary to the government line. Even Bures does not want to go along with this: "We have to do something about the Austrian surcharge. Finance Minister Markus Marterbauer has spoken clearly about the VAT reduction. The reduction cannot be financed at present."

Everyone in the coalition must now "use their problem-solving skills and worry a little less about their staging instincts". The result would be popular approval and a confident outlook. Unity sounds different ...