The ÖVP has officially started the state election campaign. “Let’s give it our all together. Because this time there is so much at stake, because this time everything is at stake,” appealed to the more than 3,200 guests in St. Pölten on Monday evening, Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner: “Whether we continue to have responsibility for this country. Or whether blue-yellow will be ruled by red-blue for the first time.” For Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Mikl-Leitner is “the right woman at the top of the country”.
The state election “is not about the big world. We cannot influence them. January 29th is about our homeland,” Mikl-Leitner emphasized. She has been politically active for 30 years, according to the state governor – “and I enjoy it every day. I love election campaigns.” In 2018, the ÖVP achieved the absolute majority of seats with 49.6 percent. In 20 days, the party has to adjust to losses. During a “topic hike” with moderator Vera Russwurm through the hall with three stages, the state party leader presented key topics of the ÖVP such as the expansion of childcare, the planned filling of open doctor’s positions via a pool of doctors, countermeasures inflation or energy independence.ÖVP boss Nehammer thanks Mikl-LeitnerÖVP boss Nehammer looked back on a “difficult year”, but “we have looked ahead”. He thanked his party colleagues “for what you endured”. He thanked Mikl-Leitner for her loyalty. “We’ll endure it together, we change and shape it,” says Nehammer: “We don’t have to be ashamed of what we’re doing politically. Not in the federal government and certainly not in the country.” The end of the Ukraine war could not be influenced, and inflation little, said Nehammer. “We have the task of acting,” Mikl-Leitner does very well, said the Federal Chancellor. It is important “not just to accept crises, we have to deal with them, help people and continue to shape the future”. Ebner: “We have never experienced an election campaign like this” “We have never experienced an election campaign like this. A heated mood, some say agitated. A polarization, some say radicalization,” said state manager Bernhard Ebner. “We have to stand up to this opposition,” because “a dirty election campaign in such turbulent times only leads to one thing: dangerous times,” said the party manager with the voters,” explained Ebner. “The match is Schnabl-Landbauer or Mikl-Leitner,” said the party manager, referring to the SPÖ’s top candidates, Deputy Governor Franz Schnabl, and FPÖ, Udo Landbauer. “Whatever or whoever you voted for in the past” – “I ask you to choose blue and yellow in this election.” The participants received blue and yellow scarves to match. “There is a lot at stake. Whether we can continue working and how strong we can do that,” said the ÖVP top candidate at the end of the campaign with all candidates on stage. That’s why she was “ready to give everything in the next 20 days. Every day, every hour.” Among the guests were Nehammer, Mikl-Leitner’s predecessor Erwin Proell and several politicians from Lower Austria: National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner, Secretary General Christian Stocker and the Vice President of the European Parliament Othmar Karas. Mikl-Leitner was accompanied by her husband and their two daughters.
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