ÖH Election: This Minister Has an ÖH Past

For decades, the Austrian National Union of Students (ÖH) has been notorious as a "political kindergarten" and "cadre school," where future government personnel and party elites often gained their first political experience. While from the 1980s onwards, student factions became less important as a recruitment pool, their significance has recently increased again. Currently, a good part of the NEOS leadership, the Minister of Education, the State Secretary for Economic Affairs, and the President of the National Council have an ÖH background.

Wiederkehr with an ÖH Background

Currently, the most prominent pink ex-ÖH mandate holder is Christoph Wiederkehr. From 2013 to 2015, he was the chairman of JUNOS - Young Liberal Students, and he is now the Minister of Education. NEOS General Secretary Douglas Hoyos, Club Chairman Yannick Shetty, his deputy Nikolaus Scherak, and the former EU Member of Parliament and current Vorarlberg state spokesperson Claudia Gamon know each other from their time with JUNOS or earlier JuLis.

Sophie Wotschke, the top candidate of 2021, sits in the National Council for NEOS and is also part of the pink board as JUNOS chairwoman. NEOS founder and part-time techno-yodeler Matthias Strolz originally came from student politics; at the University of Innsbruck, he was once the ÖH leader for the ÖVP-affiliated Action Community (AG).

Maurer Known as an ÖH Climber

A prominent ÖH climber is also Green Vice Club Chairwoman Sigrid Maurer, who gained comparatively much media presence during her time as federal chairwoman due to the Audimax occupation. The former deputy ÖH leader Ralph Schallmeiner has been sitting in the National Council for a long time as the Green health spokesperson, and youth spokesperson Barbara Neßler has a past as a local GRAS top candidate at the University of Innsbruck.

The ÖVP has been recruiting primarily from other youth organizations like the JVP for a long time. Currently, with Dominik Ramusch, the top candidate of the Action Community (AG) from 2019 is at least the black federal manager. The current State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Elisabeth Zehetner, was once the ÖH officer for international affairs.

Historically, from the 1970s onwards, a significant amount of top personnel in the People's Party came from the AG or previously the Austrian Student Union (ÖSU), including former Vice-Chancellor Wilhelm Molterer, the later Minister of the Interior and ÖVP delegation leader in the European Parliament, Ernst Strasser, the Governor of Vorarlberg Markus Wallner, as well as former Minister Harald Mahrer, who recently played a prominent role in the federal coalition negotiations in his role as President of the Chamber of Commerce.

Rosenkranz Former RFS Federal Chairman

In the ÖH, the blue student representatives are usually shunned and receive little voter support, but the Ring of Freedom Students (RFS) still serves as a personnel reservoir for the FPÖ. Currently, Walter Rosenkranz, a former RFS federal chairman, is at the head of the National Council. Long-time members of parliament Martin Graf and Harald Stefan were also previously involved in the blue student faction, and the Styrian regional councilor Hannes Amesbauer was once RFS federal manager. Former FPÖ Vice-Chancellors such as Norbert Steger or Herbert Haupt, as well as the later founder of the Liberal Forum (LiF) Heide Schmidt, also participated in student politics through the RFS.

In the SPÖ, former ÖH representatives are more likely to be found in the second row today. Former ÖH chairwoman Andrea Mautz, for example, sits for the party in the Vienna City Council, and former officials of the Association of Socialist Students (VSStÖ) are active in many areas around the Vienna City Hall or city-related companies. Speaking of the second row: Various former ÖH representatives from other factions are also represented here and came into ministerial offices through previous ÖH contacts.

Fischer, Androsch, Häupl

While there are no former student representatives among the current SPÖ party prominence, the VSStÖ was once a reservoir for future top politicians: Former Federal President Heinz Fischer was once a representative of the SPÖ's precursor organization, as were the later SPÖ central secretaries Fritz Marsch and Karl Blecha, the later ministers Peter Jankowitsch and Hannes Androsch, as well as Vienna's former mayor Michael Häupl. Karl Öllinger did lead the VSStÖ but later went to the National Council for the Greens. Vienna City Councilor Ulrike Sima, on the other hand, had courted students for the GRAS but then switched to the SPÖ. Former Chancellor Christian Kern also has experience in student politics; he was the VSStÖ's top candidate at the University of Vienna in 1989.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.