Vienna City Government Finalized: Novak New City Councillor for Finance
The Vienna SPÖ finalized its government team on Wednesday. State party secretary Barbara Novak will take over the position of finance city councillor. Former department head Peter Hanke has moved to the federal government. Furthermore, the city government will again include Deputy Mayor Kathrin Gaál, Ulrike Sima, Jürgen Czernohorszky, Veronica Kaup-Hasler, and Peter Hacker, as announced by Vienna SPÖ leader and Mayor Michael Ludwig after the red committee meetings.
Vienna City Government Established
There had been speculation about the composition of the city senate during the red-pink government negotiations. If the size of the city senate had been kept at twelve positions, there would not have been a majority for SPÖ and NEOS due to the distribution key applied. The SPÖ would have lost a seat and only had five department heads. Since it will now be expanded to 13 city councillors, the SPÖ will again have six of them as before - with the mayor not being counted, as he is the chairman of the city senate but does not have voting rights there.
City Utilities Return to Sima
There is little change in personnel: Kathrin Gaál will again be responsible for housing, urban renewal, and women. Sima retains city planning and mobility and newly receives the Vienna city utilities as a department area. This was mainly justified by the fact that an important transport company, Wiener Linien, is based there. "I expect some synergy effects here," Ludwig noted.
Sima was already responsible for the city utilities until 2020, before the area was taken over by finance city councillor Hanke in 2020. City councillor Jürgen Czernohorszky continues to oversee climate, environment, democracy, and personnel, as well as now the baths, which were previously managed by the NEOS. Kaup-Hasler is again responsible for culture and science and now also takes care of the adult education centers, while Hacker is again responsible for the fields of social affairs, health, and sports.
New city councillor Novak receives finance, economy, and international affairs and takes over responsibility for MA 01 ("Vienna Digital") from Sima. Novak's position in the state party is taken over by Jörg Neumayer. He is a municipal councillor and chairman of SPÖ-Meidling. Ludwig would also be "very pleased" if the club elects Josef Taucher as chairman again. The corresponding meeting will take place tomorrow, Thursday.
Meidlinger Succeeds Woller
The first President of the State Parliament will be Christian Meidlinger. The chairman of the Younion union was previously the second President of the State Parliament. He succeeds Ernst Woller, who has retired. Thomas Reindl will continue to serve as the chairman of the Vienna City Council. However, the lineup of the red federal councilors will change in part. Vienna will, among others, send the former red State Secretary Christoph Matznetter to the Federal Council.
The personnel package was unanimously approved, as Ludwig emphasized. He justified going into the upcoming legislative period with an almost unchanged government team, among other things, with a good election result in the April ballot and the fact that they have already achieved a lot together.
NEOS Members Still to Decide
The NEOS made their personnel decisions a few days ago. Bettina Emmerling is to continue to hold the office of Deputy Mayor and be responsible as City Councilor for Education, Integration, Youth, and Transparency. Newly assigned to her are the Vienna markets, which were previously housed in the Sima department.
However, the Red-Pink coalition will only be finalized over the weekend. On Saturday, the NEOS will vote on the coalition agreement during a member assembly. If the green light is given there, the election of the city senate members will take place on June 10 at the inaugural meeting of the city council.
(APA/Red)
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.