EU: Greens want to pass their fate to the election of veteran Werner Kogler

EU: Greens want to pbad their fate to the election of veteran Werner Kogler

VIENNA. The long-term official wants to remain national spokesperson and handed over in two years.

"Against the environmental ghost drivers of the government" – Kogler wants to become the first green candidate of the EU and exercises the campaign mode. Image: APA

If there is currently a favorable wind for the Austrian Green Party, it comes from neighboring Germany. In Bavaria and finally in Hesse, the unused party was at 20%. Werner Kogler (56), who plays in this country rather than the veteran battlehorse of the Greens, obviously wants to take this momentum with him.

At a hastily convened press conference, Mr Kogler announced Tuesday that he would run for the European elections at the end of May 2019 as the lead candidate. A green European congress in spring will give the opportunity. He has the support of the bosses of all national groups. "Kogler is the ideal candidate", for example, Maria Buchmayr Advance, a pupil in Austria. In a statement by leading green football personalities from nine countries, Rudi Anschober campaigned for Kogler's "clarity and incorruptibility".

MEP Michel Reimon, who was initially hired for the European elections, told Kogler's team that he wanted to withdraw "for personal reasons" after the next elections.

fateful election

After the election fiasco of Nationalrat, the European vote is considered a "decisive choice" for the Greens, as Kogler pointed out: When asked what part of the vote should be high for a sense of accomplishment, Kogler has certainly remained cautious: "Our spectrum lies between the election of Nationalrat (2017 with 3.8%) and Innsbruck" (election of the board in 2018 with 24.2 %, note).

If you take the 2014 European elections as a landmark, the bar is high. With 14.5%, the Greens managed three mandates. He would accept such "in all cases", if he reaches it, announced Kogler, also federal spokesman at the federal Congress on November 17. A job he wants to do for two years, regardless of his position in Brussels.

Those who follow him and who should occupy the first place in the national elections scheduled for 2022 "we will always determine". In any case, there will be "new faces" on November 17, Kogler said.

The EU election campaign should focus on central ecological issues ("ecology, healthy food, defense of democracy and values"). Kogler wants to attack "the turquoise blue as an environmentalist conductor" and "the allies of the Salvinis and Orbans".

Other candidates

In addition to the unofficial determination of the Greens, the SPÖ has already agreed that the former club president, Andreas Schieder, becomes the main candidate, after former party leader Christian Kern jumped on prior notice.

The ruling parties have not yet pbaded a resolution. However, at the ÖVP, Othmar Karas, long-time head of delegation – and critic of the PF – is considered a favorite. In the FPÖ also, there are signs of continuity, Harald Vilimsky being also the head of the delegation in the starting blocks.

As a possible candidate for Neos' European spokesperson, Claudia Gamon was called. The list of mushrooms is only fix that you want to compete.

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