Strasser and Pröll Join ÖVP Negotiating Team for Coalition with FPÖ

The ÖVP has assembled its negotiation team. After the collapse of the three-party coalition talks and Karl Nehammer's departure as party chairman, the People's Party finally had to reshuffle personnel. Christian Stocker, Nehammer's successor, now leads the team, with Strasser and Pröll as new additions. Karoline Edtstadler, who is expected to become the governor of Salzburg, has bid farewell.

Christian Stocker

With Nehammer's departure, who insisted on his no to a coalition with Herbert Kickl, the former Secretary General Christian Stocker has risen to the top of the ÖVP and now leads the negotiation team. His appointment as acting party chairman for an indefinite period was somewhat surprising, as Stocker had also previously spoken out against a government cooperation with Kickl. For his party, the burly 64-year-old lawyer represents a calming influence who can deflect any attacks.

Stocker comes from the Lower Austrian People's Party and has been a member of the National Council since 2019. Previously, he spent many years in local politics, and for now, he remains deputy mayor in Wiener Neustadt. The new ÖVP chairman was also part of Nehammer's inner circle. Nehammer had described him as his "preferred candidate" for the position of Secretary General, someone who knew the party and its structures "inside and out" and was "well connected" in the regional and sub-organisations. Stocker also managed the campaign for the National Council election.

August Wöginger

August Wöginger, who has been in the High House since 2002, is the acting club chairman and thus the liaison to the National Council faction. The 50-year-old, who hails from Upper Austria and also holds the position of ÖAAB chairman, was appointed club chairman after the 2017 National Council election under Sebastian Kurz. Like Stocker, he is considered well connected within the party and the regional organisations. It is noteworthy that neither a governor nor a female governor can be found in the ÖVP negotiation team for both the failed negotiations for a three-party coalition and those with the FPÖ.

Alexander Pröll

With Stocker's rise to the head of the ÖVP, Alexander Pröll also gained new honors. He is now the Secretary General of the party and as such, one of the new members of the negotiation team. The son of former Vice Chancellor Josef Pröll and grandnephew of Lower Austria's former governor Erwin Pröll, he completed a Master's degree in Business Law at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). He has previously worked in the cabinets of Sebastian Kurz and Karl Nehammer. From 2021, the 34-year-old Viennese was the ÖVP Federal Managing Director, a role in which he rarely spoke out in public.

Harald Mahrer

Continuing in the closest negotiation team is the President of the Chamber of Commerce and head of the Economic Association, Harald Mahrer. In 2017, following the resignation of Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner (ÖVP), he briefly served as Minister of Economy, having previously been a State Secretary. In the failed black-red-pink negotiations, the 51-year-old Viennese represented the economic wing of the ÖVP and publicly vehemently opposed the SPÖ's demand for new taxes on the wealthy.

Georg Strasser

With Georg Strasser, farmers are now prominently represented in the ÖVP team. The 53-year-old farmer from Lower Austria studied Food and Biotechnology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. He began his political career in 2005 as a chamber councilor of the District Farmers' Chamber Melk, and from 2009 to 2017 he was mayor of Nöchling (Melk district). Since 2013, he has been a member of the National Council, and since 2017, President of the Farmers' Association.

Claudia Plakolm

From the Upper Austrian ÖVP comes Claudia Plakom, who is the State Secretary and Chairwoman of the Young ÖVP. In 2017, at the age of 22, she was the youngest member of the National Council. The now 30-year-old ran for the National Council election in second place behind Nehammer and is considered a rising star and potential ministerial candidate of the People's Party. As such, she was also part of the negotiation team for the three-party coalition. Just like Susanne Fürst on the FPÖ side, she is now the only woman there after Edtstadler's departure.

(APA/Red)

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