Settlement in Stadl-Paura: Popp presents the new FP chairman with a choice

The non-partisan Popp List governs the municipality with a whopping two-thirds majority. After founding his own FP city party around a month ago, mayor and namesake Christian Popp wants to clear the air within his team.

Popp brings out the live artillery against the new liberal party leader Slobo Pupeter. Since the most recent local council election, he has been a representative and member of Team Popp: “Pupeter has to finally show his colors. He can’t be with us on the one hand and found a party on the other,” Popp gives the renegade a choice.

A discussion between members of the mayor’s team and Pupeter should have taken place on Thursday. Popp justifies the last-minute cancellation of the appointment by saying that Pupeter wanted to take Stadlinger FPÖ veteran Herwig Schropp with him to this meeting: “I find it spineless that he doesn’t come to the interview alone and instead gets help from a 90-year-old.” Pop hard into the court with Pupeter.

Trust shattered

The re-foundation of the FPÖ in Stadl-Paura had caught the mayor and many of his colleagues off on the wrong foot: “Because there were already rumors, some of us spoke to Pupeter about it. Three days before the founding meeting he denied it violently and said literally: For God’s sake, how did you come up with that?'” The trust is now gone, says Popp, because “whoever says three times that it’s not true and then the rumors are confirmed, how are you supposed to believe something like that?”

The final straw was a liberal information sheet before Easter, in which Pupeter once again made it clear why he had founded his own local party. He wants to mobilize for the upcoming EU and National Council elections. At the same time, he announced the Stadlinger FP’s candidacy in the 2027 local council election. District party chairman Manfred Haimbuchner was a little clearer in the information sheet. He also expects to run in the mayoral election: “If you want free politics, you have to vote freely at all levels,” the deputy state governor is quoted as saying in the party postille.

“Don’t oppose Popp”

“As freedom people, we want to be represented on different levels. That doesn’t mean that we are against Popp. I myself want to continue to work on Team Popp in the future,” says Pupeter conciliatoryly.

He explains why he wanted Schropp to be present at the discussion with details of the agreement on the occasion of the establishment of the Popp name list. Only the mayor and Schropp would know about it. And it is strange why the mayor has no objections to the independence of the Stadlinger VP.

The Blues’ departure from the Popp list has no effect on the Stadlingen showcase project for the time being. Pupeter is the only member of the new FPÖ team. Vice Mayor Thomas Brindl, the highest-ranking VP member on the non-partisan list of names, comments emotionlessly on the dispute over the founding of the FP: “I don’t care whether Pupeter goes or stays. The Popp team has a solid majority in the local council and no one can stop us prevent Stadl-Paura from being developed further pragmatically and away from party politics.”

VP in conflict

While the local FP party was on hold for a while, the People’s Party remained active after the 2021 election. On Monday of the previous week, VP city party chairman Martin Leitgeb surprisingly resigned – for personal reasons, as he emphasized to the Welser Zeitung. It is still unclear who will succeed him, according to the People’s Party’s district office. It remains unclear whether the Stadlinger VP will run again in 2027. This also applies to the mayoral election, emphasizes managing director Monika Neudorfer when asked.

If the VP tried to go it alone again, Popp’s electoral organization would actually be threatened in its existence. VP member Brindl doesn’t want that: “We have made so much progress together in the last few years that a return to party politics at the local level would be a big step backwards.” As long as he has something to say there, the Stadlinger VP will not run for the local council or mayoral election in three years.