Day of resignations – Tyrol: Health Council also throws down


Now events are turning over in the Tyrolean state politics. After the surprising resignation of Patrizia Zoller-Frischauf (ÖVP), member of the state council for economic affairs, party colleague and state health councilor Bernhard Tilg has announced his retirement.

Just on the day of the double resignation, media reports had spread about a suspected scandal involving PCR tests in Tyrol. For example, laboratory errors could possibly have occurred in hundreds of thousands of tests, which should have led to a much higher value looking out for escape mutations of the coronavirus. The focus is on the Viennese company HG Pharma, which received an eight million euro order from the State of Tyrol for the evaluation of PCR tests. The political resignations should have nothing to do with it, it is emphasized.

In a broadcast, Tilg said that overcoming the Corona crisis was a “special challenge”. “A time that demanded everything from us – including myself,” he said. The protection of the population was “top priority at all times” and he was glad that the Tyrolean hospitals could be protected “from overloading”. In any case, he was “a member of the Tyrolean provincial government with body and soul,” said Tilg, and thanked Governor Günther Platter in particular and, among others, his government colleagues.

Tilg came under heavy fire last year in the course of the Corona crisis management. He became known through an appearance in “ZiB 2”, in which he repeated several times that the authorities in Ischgl had “done everything right”.

Tilg announced on Tuesday evening that he did not want to remain in politics. Instead, he is returning to the private university UMIT as a professor of medical technology and medical informatics. The 53-year-old was – like Zoller-Frischauf – in his team since the beginning of Platter’s governor’s era in 2008.

NEOS: Platter caught on the wrong foot
The Tyrolean NEOS were the first opposition party to react to the castling. Their club boss Dominik Oberhofer saw Platter caught on the wrong foot: “The Tyrolean governor happened tonight what he actually never wanted: a government reshuffle.” Oberhofer spoke of surprising resignations, which would show that many in the People’s Party “construction sites “Would locate in the country.

Optimism in “Krone” interview
It was only on Monday that ÖVP politician Tilg gave the “Krone” an interview in which he was optimistic that the country would soon return to normal. “We are working at full speed to ensure that the Covid vaccinations are carried out and distributed in the best possible way. That of course always depends on the vaccine deliveries from the federal government, which unfortunately often fluctuate. “