Lower Austria’s regional Governor Erwin Pröll has announced plans for the elections in the region to take place next year on 3 March. Announcing the decision he said that the work of the local government would continue right up until the last minute and that the election campaign that followed, which would probably start on […]
Austrian Canadian businessman Frank Stronach has invested another 1,000,000 euros in his political party which he founded recently to fight in the next election in Austria. According to a new law from the first of July any donations over 50,000 euros need to be registered with the Federal auditors. That means also any donations made […]
Austria’s parliament has approved the eurozone’s permanent rescue fund, clearing the way for the country’s broader participation in the 17-nation zone’s financial crisis management. The governing left-center coalition was supported by the opposition Green party to surpass the two-thirds of votes needed for approval Wednesday. Opposed were the rightist Freedom Party and the populist BZO, […]
The first wife of Mick Jagger who is now a European goodwill ambassador has come to Vienna to highlight the fact that the Austrian firm Andritz is involved in a controversial project to build a huge dam in the Amazon rainforest. Bianca met husband to be Mick Jagger at a party after a Rolling Stones […]
People’s Party (ÖVP) Graz Mayor Siegfried Nagl has ended his faction’s partnership with the Greens. Nagl announced yesterday (Weds) that the Graz delegation of the ÖVP would not cooperate with the Greens after next year’s city parliament election regardless of the outcome. He criticised the Graz Greens for being unreliable when it comes to working […]
The government is one step closer to passing a new party subsidisation law. Social Democratic (SPÖ) Media Secretary Josef Ostermayer – who represents his party in the talks with the opposition – expressed confidence regarding presenting the amendment in parliament in around two weeks’ time. SPÖ Chancellor Werner Faymann recently underlined that he wanted the […]
Norbert Darabos has refused to apologise after attacking Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The Austrian Social Democratic (SPÖ) defence minister told Die Presse on Sunday that Lieberman was an “unbearable” member of the Israeli government to him. Darabos criticised the nationalist politician for refusing to rule out an Israeli attack against Iran due to the […]
The Vienna Greens are risking a coalition-internal conflict by calling for a city toll. Rüdiger Maresch, the leftist party’s traffic spokesman, said such a fee “is unavoidable on the long term”. Maresch underlined the city government’s ambition to slash fine dust levels, the volume of toxic emissions by cars and noise caused by traffic in […]
People’s Party (ÖVP) Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner has defended the plan to finalise the talks for the government’s transparency package this year. Mikl-Leitner underlined today (Fri) that the various planned draft bills would come into force only next year anyway. She promised that her cabinet and the team of negotiators assigned by the Social Democrats […]
The Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) has finally dismissed the circulating rumours about teaming up with a billionaire businessman. The party, which sensationally won almost 11 per cent in the national election of 2008, could drop out of parliament in next year’s ballot. Only two per cent of Austrians plan to support the […]