Mahrer Confirmed as WKÖ President

Harald Mahrer will thus remain President of the Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ) for five years, according to a release from the ÖVP Economic Association, of which Mahrer is also President.

WKÖ: ÖVP Economic Association Strongest Force in Economic Parliament

The Economic Association of the People's Party is by far the largest faction in the Economic Parliament. However, in the elections in March, it lost its two-thirds majority and received 61.3 percent of the votes.

"We need less state coercion, but rather freedom from the state, to be able to realize economic future visions and dreams for this country," said Mahrer according to the release in his speech on Thursday before the Economic Parliament. Austria is a good country "and it can even become a better one if we focus more on the future again. The economy has a central role here, because our business is the future."

Numerous Deputies of Mahrer

In addition to Mahrer, his deputies for the upcoming term were also appointed. Wolfgang Hesoun and Martha Schultz were re-elected to the WKÖ Presidium. Carmen Goby was again co-opted as Vice President into the WKÖ Presidium. Bettina Dorfer-Pauschenwein, Federal Chairwoman of the Young Economy (JW), Andreas Robert Herz, Federal Chairman of the Professional Association for Personal Consulting and Personal Support, as well as Angelika Sery-Froschauer, until recently Chairwoman of the Federal Division for Information and Consulting, were newly co-opted as Vice Presidents. Additionally, Matthias Krenn from the Freedom Economy (FW) and Christoph Matznetter for the Social Democratic Economic Association (SWV) were co-opted into the WKÖ Presidium.

Three Secretaries General, New Spokesperson for Mahrer

In the new term, the former VPNÖ club chairman Jochen Danninger will serve as Secretary General of the WKÖ. Danninger served as State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance from December 2013 to the end of August 2014. From early 2015 to August 2017, he was the head of the department for Hypo NÖ. From September 2017, the lawyer acted as one of the managing directors of the Lower Austrian business agency ecoplus. Herwig Höllinger remains Deputy Secretary General, with Thomas Spann newly joining.

New Mahrer Spokespersons Also Speak for Secretaries General

Mahrer has also appointed a new spokesperson, the native Carinthian Valentin Petritsch, who began his spokesperson career with the former ÖVP Minister of Agriculture Elisabeth Köstinger and then moved to the Economic Association, as revealed in a follow-up note from a press release. Together with Petritsch, Andreas Jilly speaks for the President - as well as the entire Secretariat of the Chamber, it was stated to the APA on Thursday.

Lawyer Jilly was chairman of the ÖVP-affiliated Action Community during his student days and most recently a press spokesperson for the then ÖVP Minister of Education Martin Polaschek, temporarily moving to the private sector in the fall of 2023. The previous Mahrer spokesperson Sonja Horner, as reported, is dedicating herself to new tasks.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.