Criticism and Leaks

Unrest Surrounding SPÖ Committee Meetings

Babler’s days as head of the SPÖ are numbered.(Bild: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

The SPÖ’s Presidium and Executive Board met as scheduled on Friday. In the run-up to the meetings, there was, on the one hand, the revelation of the Muchitsch slides—but also criticism from the party’s “red grande dame,” Doris Bures, who argued that, given the poor poll numbers, the party could not simply move on to business as usual, even in terms of personnel changes. Babler himself, however, spoke of a “media-driven” debate...

What had long been whispered behind closed doors could be read in black and white on PowerPoint slides projected onto the wall as early as the beginning of September. As the “Krone” revealed, slides were projected onto the wall during a secret union meeting in which the powerful union leader Beppo Muchitsch called for a “personnel realignment,” since Babler was “unelectable for many.”

In the run-up to the Presidium and Executive Board meeting, the Social Democratic “grande dame” Doris Bures also stated that, given the poor poll numbers—currently at 15 percent—they could not proceed with the agenda. This explicitly concerned both substantive issues and personnel matters.

Committees Without Big Names
Did SPÖ leader Andreas Babler perceive it that way as well? In any case, he himself once again referred to the leadership debate surrounding the committees as “media-driven” and said it would not stand up to reality. The meetings themselves—like Wednesday’s “secret meeting,” which had already become public—yielded no significant results.

Babler’s days as SPÖ leader are numbered.(Bild: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

However, this was to be expected, since key party figures—such as Vienna’s Mayor Michael Ludwig and Burgenland’s Governor Hans Peter Doskozil—have been staying away from the committees for quite some time anyway. This was another point Muchitsch mentioned in his slides.

The coming weeks are likely to be exciting nonetheless. Gerhard Zeiler, who is being touted as an alternative to Babler, is said to have told confidants that he now intends to go on the offensive.