Jutta Dorfner-Zohner answered the first question with a resounding no. A little later she made the decision to leave her comfort zone, “where everything went well anyway”. Yesterday, the new Wels Regional Court President was ceremoniously inaugurated in her new office in the presence of well-known representatives of the judiciary and to the applause of her colleagues and the governor.
The 58-year-old from Ebensee was accompanied by her husband Andreas and their two adult daughters. In her speech, she compared the new area of responsibility with her previous job: “As a court clerk in Vöcklabruck, assertiveness, appreciative leadership and a fair distribution of work were required. That hasn’t changed.” The new President named her predecessor Hildegard Egle as advocate, whom she chose and built up as her successor. “She didn’t give up and finally made me promise her.” The previous speakers of the new President addressed the current turbulence in the judiciary in detail. Erich Dietachmair, President of the Linz Higher Regional Court, stated that there had been a loss of confidence as a result of what happened in the parliamentary committee of inquiry. With the planned creation of an independent federal prosecutor, it must be possible to depoliticize the judiciary.
The current head of the Higher Regional Court used to be a judge at the Wels Regional Court, as was Daniela Engljähringer from the Austrian Association of Judges. She attested to her colleague Dorfner-Zohner, with whom she had completed the judge training, an alert mind, a caring streak and the cheerfulness so typical of people from the Inner Salzkammergut.
Governor Thomas Stelzer wished the new President every success and, like Dietachmair and Engljähringer, addressed the current disputes. The judiciary should be allowed to work independently. But everyone should stay in their own field and not abuse the judiciary for their own purposes. Apparently, this meant the political opponent.
Source: Nachrichten
