Luger continues to oppose speed limits of 100 km/h and a 32-hour week, but wants to question members

On November 7th, Klaus Luger’s tenth anniversary as mayor of Linz, the Linz SPÖ will elect a new chairman at the district party conference. The only candidate is the old one, Luger. The member survey carried out at the same time promises more excitement. The SPÖ wants to obtain the opinions of its members on current issues. This also includes controversially discussed demands within the party, such as the 32-hour week and 100 km/h speed limit on the motorways. As is well known, Luger has a clear – negative – stance on both.

Luger against “old school economics”

When it comes to the 32-hour week, the economic level is missing from the discussion. He describes the argument that increased productivity should be compensated for by reduced working hours as old-school economics. “The current shortage of skilled workers makes it impossible to reduce working hours,” said Luger. At 100 km/h, parliamentary group leader Stefan Giegler hits the brakes. The loss of time leads to a loss of productivity and the CO2 saving effect is extremely small.

Summer vacationers, asylum seekers and climate glue

Other topics include shortening the summer holidays to six weeks, for Giegler an “effective individual measure” to reduce the educational gap between children from high- and low-income households and to relieve parents of the long holiday care. The party also wants to know how its members feel about unrestricted access to the labor market for asylum seekers. “Many industries are desperately looking for workers,” says the third President of the State Parliament, Peter Binder. Many people would also criticize that asylum seekers do not work, not knowing that they are not allowed to do so. The fifth question aims at stricter penalties for disrupting public order through unannounced demonstrations. This primarily refers to climate adhesives and Corona demonstrators.

Results are just a picture of the mood

Unlike the election of the chairman, the results are only a picture of the mood and are not binding for the party. “But you will have to accept the results,” says Luger. Regarding the relevance of the survey, he refers to the first one in 2020. The clear yes to video surveillance at the time was also implemented in this way. The result for the eastern bypass was different, for which only a very narrow majority of members voted. In this case, the Linz SPÖ stuck to its no to the route through Ebelsberg and Pichling.

Preparation for the federal party conference in Graz

The national political impact of the survey is likely to be limited, even if the Linz SPÖ is the largest district organization in Austria. Nevertheless, the delegates at the federal party conference in Graz in November will be guided by the member survey, when the federal party chairman Andreas Babler will vote on the 32-hour week or 100 km/h speed limit. Binder, one of the delegates, announces that he will vote in this way if there is a clear majority in the member survey. “If there is a close decision, I vote the way I think,” says Binder.

For the first time purely online survey

The election procedure is based on that of the state SPÖ. The approximately 5,200 members can vote exclusively online between September 23rd and October 5th. Anyone who doesn’t want to do this can come to one of the 15 polling stations in the districts on September 23rd. Volunteers on site support the election.

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