Burgenland election campaign heats up
The Burgenland election campaign heated up today (Weds), with the Peoples Party slamming an advertisement by Social Democratic (SPÖ) Governor Hans Niessl.The advertisement announces his decision to dissolve the provincial legislature in advance of the 30 May provincial election.ÖVP provincial manager Christian Sagartz demanded that the SPÖ make the sources of the funding of its election campaign public and disclose whether the money for the advertisement came from provincial or SPÖ funds.Sagartz said there were rumours that the SPÖ was spending two million Euros on its election campaign and so the party needed to come clean about the provenance of the money.In response, SPÖ provincial manager Robert Hergovich claimed that the ÖVPs “lies remain lies no matter how often they are repeated. The ÖVPs poisonous agitators are again doing their job.”The SPÖ, he added, would distance itself from the ÖVPs “mud-slinging campaign.”Meanwhile, Niessl announced today that wind-power installation producer Enercon would open a service centre for such installations in north Burgenland that would create 200 jobs.Going tit for tat, ÖVP Deputy Governor Franz Steindl disclosed that a producer of lithium-ion batteries might open a production facility in the province that would create 500 jobs.Burgenland is Austrias poorest province and news of the creation of jobs is of interest to many voters.