Member of the National Council Eva-Maria Holzleitner (28) from Wels is the new woman chairwoman of the SP. At the federal women’s conference of the party on Friday, she prevailed in a runoff election with 55.21 percent (196 of the 355 valid delegate votes) against the Viennese community member Mireille Ngosso. In the first round, the Lower Austrian woman boss Elvira Schmidt was eliminated.
Holzleitner, who will now hold the office for the next three years, was the favorite of the previous women’s boss, Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek. Internal disagreements indicated that there were two opposing candidates – with Schmidt even one from Heinisch-Hosek’s home state, who ultimately could not prevail.
Holzleitner was “overwhelmed and totally moved” by the trust. She thanked Heinisch Hosek, who had “mastered everything with strength and elegance”, “it was not easy for you in the last few weeks and months either”. She is looking forward to working with the SP women and is grateful: “Friendship and a feminist future!”
In the first ballot, none of the candidates had passed the necessary 50 percent approval. Schmidt got the fewest votes with 24.12 percent and was eliminated. Ngosso came in second with 30.35 percent, Holzleitner was ahead with 45.53 percent. In the second round, Ngosso came up with a respectable 44.79 percent, took the defeat athletically and immediately congratulated the new chairman with a warm hug.
At the beginning of the women’s conference on Friday morning, Heinisch-Hosek said goodbye as chairwoman of the SP women. In view of the abundance of successor candidates, she was confident that a good decision would be made and called for people to leave the conference united after the election and to postpone the formation of groups.
Heinisch-Hosek headed the SP women for twelve years. “It was really a huge pleasure for me, rarely no pleasure and really a great honor,” she underlined in her farewell speech, but also admitted that she had to accept many compromises with the VP as a coalition partner. Your successor generation has a lot of work ahead of them, because every standstill is also a step backwards. The SP women are “the most important pillar in this party”, and the new chairwoman of the idea for the “huge reliable tanker SP”.
Before Heinisch-Hosek’s speech, party leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner was on the floor. “Women in Austria can rely on us, dear friends,” she emphasized. This is not the case with any of the other parties, not even with the Greens. She praised Heinisch-Hosek for her commitment and the milestones she had set, including the quota for women in state-affiliated companies and universities and the Papamonat.
The fact that, unusually, three women ran for candidates, “that’s what sets us apart,” stressed Rendi-Wagner on the day before the SP federal party conference, because it shows that many in the women’s organization are ready to take on responsibility. “Tension is provided and I’m happy. I love tension, I really do.” After the election, Rendi-Wagner responded immediately by sending it out. “I congratulate you on being elected as the new SP women’s chairwoman. The challenges that lie ahead of us are great. We’ll tackle this together. Right now we need a strong SP women’s organization.”
