On and off for 22 years!
Zeiler and the SPÖ: The Next Act in the Red Love Story
For over 22 years, 71-year-old media executive Gerhard Zeiler has been mentioned at (ir)regular intervals as a potential SPÖ federal party leader and chancellor candidate. His latest announcement marks the next chapter in the red love story. A chronology.
Kronen Zeitung als bevorzugte Google-Quelle hinzufügen An on-off relationship is a partnership characterized by a constant cycle of breakups and reconciliations. The parties involved can neither live together properly nor live without each other. That’s roughly how the “sloppy” relationship between Gerhard Zeiler and the federal SPÖ can be described. Or as the German musician Klaus Lage puts it in his song: “Touched a thousand times. A thousand times, nothing happened.”
Zeiler to the “Krone”: “I’m the right man”
But now the 71-year-old seems to really want to get serious: “I’m the right person, ” Zeiler declared in an interview with *Krone* editor Conny Bischofberger, staking his claim to the position of SPÖ party leader.
The first rumors of a coup date back to 2004
The first rumors of Zeiler becoming the SPÖ party leader date back to 2004. In April, the then-head of RTL—who had also served as ORF Director General from 1994 to 1998 with the SPÖ’s support—voiced his thoughts about leaving the private broadcaster. Just one month later, the former working-class child from Vienna’s Ottakring district was floated as a possible SPÖ chancellor candidate for the 2006 National Council election.
The debate was fueled by former Finance Minister Hannes Androsch (SPÖ), who publicly accused former Chancellor Franz Vranitzky (SPÖ) and a group of prominent former SPÖ politicians of wanting to replace then-incumbent SPÖ leader Alfred Gusenbauer with Zeiler, if necessary by means of a “coup.” Some media outlets also recalled at the time that Zeiler, as a cabinet member under Chancellor Fred Sinowatz, had been involved in the coup in June 1986 that made Vranitzky chancellor virtually overnight.
Vranitzky, in turn, is said to have appointed Zeiler as director general of the ORF in 1994. Both Vranitzky and Zeiler denied the reports at the time. In the end, the coup never materialized; Gusenbauer remained SPÖ leader, won the 2006 election, and even succeeded Wolfgang Schüssel (ÖVP) as chancellor. Zeiler continued to serve as CEO of the RTL Group, while maintaining close ties to the SPÖ.
Close Friendship with Franz Voves
During the Styrian state election campaign in the fall of 2005, he vigorously campaigned for the SPÖ’s top candidate, Franz Voves, and caused a stir at campaign rallies on Vienna’s Küniglberg—his former workplace—with remarks about “dismantling the ORF.” At the time, he acknowledged renewed speculation about a political career in Austria “with a smile, but without comment.”
Voves ultimately won back the governor’s seat for the Styrian SPÖ—ending 60 years of ÖVP dominance. Incidentally: Voves— like his former counterparts Peter Ambrozy and Hans Niessl —only spoke out in support of Zeiler as the new SPÖ leader this past weekend.
Zeiler and Faymann: Pretty Much the Best of Enemies
Just two years later—in 2008—the media executive was once again in the spotlight of domestic politics when talk of an internal replacement for Gusenbauer began circulating again. Zeiler’s name was mentioned once more, but in the end, Werner Faymann won the race. In the years that followed, Zeiler would cultivate a special “friendship” with Faymann.
Zeiler’s comeback as ORF chief was thwarted by SPÖ heavyweights
Three years later, in 2011, tensions between Faymann and Zeiler really began to flare up for the first time. Zeiler was exploring a return to Austria and openly flirted with the idea of a comeback as ORF Director General, intending to challenge the incumbent, Alexander Wrabetz. Former ORF Director General Gerd Bacher and, surprisingly, the ÖVP came out in strong support of Zeiler. “The difference between Zeiler and Wrabetz is as great as that between Kreisky and Faymann,” Bacher had the media report at the time.
However, Faymann and his then-State Secretary for Media, Josef Ostermayer, as well as the SPÖ-led federal states, blocked Wrabetz, prompting Zeiler to withdraw his candidacy. Zeiler, contrite at the time: “I have many friends in the SPÖ, and I know that many in the SPÖ would have liked to see me take the job.” He had considered a move to the ORF, but not for long, “because some conversations shocked me so much that it became clear to me that this would not be my next career move.”
In April 2012, Zeiler left RTL and joined the American media company Time Warner in May, where he became president of Turner Broadcasting System International, which operates networks such as CNN, TNT, and Cartoon Network. Zeiler defined his basic view of politics in 2013 at the Austrian Media Days: “Politicians simply have to do their job and communicate what they believe in to the public every day.”
Zeiler’s Comeback in 2015: Ousted Alongside Faymann by Kern
For nearly two and a half years, things remained quiet in the SPÖ-Zeiler relationship, but by the end of 2014, the rumors were flying again. Speculation about Faymann’s replacement was circulating, and alongside then-ÖBB CEO Christian Kern, Zeiler’s name was once again being mentioned. In June 2015, the rumors of a leadership change finally reached their peak when Zeiler openly admitted that he would be willing to take over the SPÖ leadership. He made his first move in the fall of 2015 when he threw his hat into the ring for the Vienna state election campaign and campaigned for the reelection of Michael Häupl (SPÖ). It was a success. Meanwhile, internal pressure on Faymann continued to mount, and on May 9, 2016, the exasperated chancellor finally stepped down.
The path would actually have been clear for Zeiler, but he let Kern take the lead and refrained from running against him. “If the vast majority of the state organizations had wanted me, I would have given it very serious thought. But that wasn’t the case, so it wasn’t an issue,” Zeiler is reported to have said about this two and a half years later. The media executive admitted quite candidly on May 12, 2016, on ORF’s “ZiB 2”that he had been preparing Faymann’s replacement for a year already, together with the designated SPÖ leader and Federal Chancellor Kern. “We both had a role to play and agreed that a leadership change within the SPÖ was necessary,” Zeiler said at the time. “House of Cards” in its purest form...
Repeated jabs at the SPÖ’s course
However, anyone who believed that Zeiler’s name would now disappear from the domestic political scene was sorely mistaken. As early as the winter of 2016, his name resurfaced in connection with the succession of Vienna’s Mayor Michael Häupl (SPÖ). But Zeiler promptly denied it. Instead, the media executive repeatedly leveled sharp criticism at his own party and at Kern’s policies from then on. In December 2017, Zeiler had the media convey that the SPÖ had not emphasized change enough ahead of the National Council election. Two months earlier, the Social Democrats had lost the chancellorship to ÖVP leader Sebastian Kurz.
We both had a role to play and agreed that a change in leadership within the SPÖ was necessary.
Gerhard Zeiler im Mai 2016. Damals verriet er, ein Jahr lang gemeinsam mit Christian Kern die Ablöse von Werner Faymann vorbereitet zu haben.
After Kern’s surprise resignation from domestic politics in October 2018, the Social Democrats were once again searching for a new party leader. But this time, Zeiler’s name no longer played a decisive role; Pamela Rendi-Wagner took over.
A Scathing Reckoning in a Book
While Zeiler took the next step in his career at Warner in March 2019 and was promoted to global chief revenue officer of WarnerMedia, “his” SPÖ remained in the opposition at the federal level. The Reds were no longer faring well in elections, prompting internal criticism—including against Rendi-Wagner—to grow ever louder. As early as June 2019, Zeiler once again had to publicly deny that he was in talks regarding the SPÖ chairmanship. Following the SPÖ’s poor showing in the 2019 National Council election, Zeiler delivered a scathing critique of the party’s course in his book *Passionately Red: Why We Need More Social Democracy*.
Gerhard Zeiler
- Childhood: Bornon July 20, 1955, in Vienna’s Ottakring district. Zeiler has a twin brother who is a teacher. He studied psychology and was active in the Socialist Youth.
- Career: In the 1980s, he became press secretary to Fred Sinowatz, then SPÖ Minister of Education and later Federal Chancellor, and to Franz Vranitzky. In 1986, he became Secretary General of ORF. After working at Tele 5, he moved to RTL II and returned to ORF as its head in 1994. In 2003, he became CEO of the RTL Group; after 13 years, he moved to the U.S. media giant Time Warner, which also owns CNN. Today, Zeiler heads the international operations of Warner Bros. Discovery. In November, he will receive the “International Emmy Award” in New York.
- Personal life: Zeiler lives in Salzburg and, more recently, in Vienna. He is married to Alexandra; the couple has an 11-year-old son. He has a daughter from a previous marriage.
In his work, Zeiler firmly distanced himself from purely class-struggle rhetoric and left-wing dogmas. He advocated for modernization and a significant shift toward a more business-friendly orientation (“pinstripe socialism” in the style of Vranitzky). This stance did not win Zeiler only friends within the party. “It’s easy to make recommendations when you’re an outsider. Zeiler doesn’t even represent a faction within the SPÖ. He should be given a platform—it’s a nice book—but in my view, the SPÖ is a proud party and self-assured enough to solve these problems from within,” emphasized Burgenland’s Hans Peter Doskozil in November 2019, for example.
Zeiler doesn’t even represent a faction within the SPÖ.
Burgenlands Landeshauptmann Hans Peter Doskozil im November 2019 über Gerhard Zeiler.
Bild: APA/HANS KLAUS TECHT
Zeiler and Doskozil at loggerheads; threat of party resignation
Zeiler’s response to these statements followed in December 2022. Amid the open power struggle for the SPÖ leadership between the trio of Rendi-Wagner, Doskozil, and Andreas Babler, Zeiler openly threatened to leave the party: “There are few scenarios in which I can imagine no longer being a member of the SPÖ, but a chancellor candidacy or party leadership by Doskozil would be one such case,” the media executive emphasized in an interview on Puls24. The reaction from Burgenland was not long in coming. “In 2019, Mr. Zeiler proposed a minority government led by then-ÖVP Chancellor Kurz and supported by the SPÖ. Any questions?” wrote Roland Fürst, the SPÖ’s provincial executive director at the time, on X.
Interestingly, Styrian SPÖ provincial leader Max Lercher also distanced himself from Zeiler with harsh words at the time (see post below), yet Lercher surprisingly reacted positively to Zeiler’s latest bid to become SPÖ leader.
Zeiler as Finance Minister in the Shadow Cabinet
In September 2023, there was renewed domestic political turmoil surrounding the media executive when an internal SPÖ strategy paper was leaked. The paper outlined a shadow cabinet for the party’s new leader, Andreas Babler. The most prominent figure in it was Zeiler as finance minister.
In recent years, things have quieted down regarding Zeiler and his ambitions within the SPÖ. The media executive rose to become global head of sales at WarnerMedia and, a few years later (2022), President International at Warner Bros. Discovery—his current high-profile position. However, he remained steadfast in his criticism of the party’s current direction. In April 2024, for example, he said that social democracy had fallen prey to the same disease that had once afflicted the ÖVP, namely “tearing each other apart.” Given his current ambitions to unseat Babler from the party leadership, these statements seem somewhat ironic...
Social democracy has fallen prey to the disease of tearing each other apart.
Gerhard Zeiler im April 2024 zum Zustand der SPÖ
SPÖ in a state of shock—what happens next?
One thing is certain: With his latest attempt to rise to the top of the SPÖ, the party is reeling through yet another leadership debate—the umpteenth in recent years. Four days have now passed since Zeiler staked his claim to the leadership, and he still has not found a single explicit public supporter. On the other hand, expressions of solidarity for Babler are also lacking. At least some federal states would like clarity quickly. It’s difficult to bring about upheaval within the party without the backing of Vienna and the labor unions. Both have remained silent for days.
The next executive committee meeting isn’t scheduled until early November, and at least Federal Executive Director Klaus Seltenheim sees no reason to move the meeting up. He pointed to Zeiler’s statements in the *Krone* interview, in which he said he planned to spend October in New York, London, and on vacation.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.