“Krone” interview: – Thomas Steiner celebrates Mayor’s anniversary

Thomas Steiner has been mayor of the state capital Eisenstadt for ten years. The ÖVP politician is full of conviction and with all his heart and soul head of the “smallest city in the world”.

“Krone”: How was the jump from the state government to the city chief of Eisenstadt? Thomas Steiner: It was not planned that I will become mayor. I was elected to the local council in 2007 because I wanted to help shape it, but not with the intention of one day becoming mayor. Then in 2011 the question arose who should be Andrea Fraunschiel’s successor and that’s how it turned out. Have you ever regretted your decision? As a mayor, you are particularly close to the population. When you do something, you always have immediate feedback from people, regardless of whether it is positive or negative. There is hardly a job in which you can have so many successes and wonderful experiences as here. Professionally, it was the best decision I could make for me. When I walk through the city and see how many things have changed for the better, it’s just a cool thing. How difficult is it to run a turquoise state capital in a red country? Working with the country is like a wave of waves. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes better, sometimes worse. As the state capital, however, we are in a position to be strong enough to be able to implement projects without the support of the state. The cooperation with former governor Niessl was very good, especially in sporting matters. We both put the party differences aside and implemented great projects together. During this time, the athletics facility or the roofing of the ice rink fall. At the moment, the country is more of a coexistence than a togetherness. What has been your personally most successful project in the past ten years? That is a difficult question, actually it is always the project that is currently being implemented. If I had to commit myself to one thing, it would be the introduction of the city bus five years ago. There was resistance and we didn’t know whether it would work or whether people would even take the bus. Today I know that we have 99 percent approval from the population for the city bus. At the moment around 1000 passengers use one of the four lines every day. Before the lockdown, there were even 1,500. I have to mention a second project, namely the 2013 urban development plan. At that time, we already had sustainability and soil conservation in our program, which in 2013 was more than foresighted. The revitalization of the inner city is a big issue. What else is planned? There is a whole range of measures. We have already managed to attract 15 new entrepreneurs to the city center with the city center bonus. Of course that costs money, but you can also see that it brings something, because almost all shops are currently occupied. The need for small units is great, which is why many owners are currently converting their houses. It is important to have an interesting mix of industries and businesses that are not available everywhere. We are well positioned here. The biggest enemy of the inner city, in my opinion, is e-commerce. This is where our newly founded city marketing association should join in and develop concepts. In addition, it should have a kind of hinge function between the community and entrepreneurs, so that we can join forces. Will the anniversary be celebrated? No. For me it is also unbelievable how quickly the time has passed. It felt like a blink of an eye. Ten years have already passed.
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