Petzner admits speeding
A right-wing politician has vowed to “draw political conclusions” from being caught speeding.Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) MP Stefan Petzner confirmed newspaper reports that he lost his licence for going at too high speed.Referring to the incident last December, the BZÖ Carinthia chief claimed he drove because of a “medical emergency”. Petzner said today (Thurs) he drove to a clinic to have a tumour examined. The politician did not reveal any further information on the location of the potentially cancer-triggering swelling except that it turned out to be harmless.Petzner said: “What happened to many others also happened to me I was caught by a radar trap.”The BZÖ official argued he needed to commute from the southern province of Carinthia to Vienna where the federal parliament is located constantly “since I havent got a chauffeur funded by taxpayers, in contrast to government ministers”.Petzner made clear he will “draw political conclusions” from the occurrences. The head of the BZÖs department in Carinthia refused to comment on rumours claiming he planned to resign as MP. Petzner said he will make his decision public tomorrow.Petzner made headlines all over the world with his tearful farewell from his “soulmate” Jörg Haider after the right-wing spearhead and BZÖ founder died in a drink-drive car crash in October 2008. Petzner succeeded Haider as chairman of the party, but was replaced by Herbert Scheibner after just a few weeks. The BZÖ, which garnered 10.7 per cent in the general election of September 2008, is currently headed by Josef Bucher.Petzner stepped down as general secretary of the party last April just days after he labelled reports that he was considering to resign as “attempts to harm our Easter peace.”Some political rivals claimed he made himself a laughing stock some months later by revealing his “vision” to become mayor of Vienna someday. The BZÖ has struggled to get a foothold in the capital ever since it was established by Haider in April 2005. It bagged just 1.33 per cent in last Octobers city parliament ballot.