Doskozil to return to Burgenland state parliament

Burgenland Governor Hans Peter Doskozil will return to the state parliament next week, following the removal of his larynx in April, ORF reported. He will attend Wednesday’s special session on the state’s finances, his first appearance there since the operation.

The opposition Austrian People’s Party requested the session after a critical report by the Burgenland State Audit Office. It is seeking answers from Doskozil about the state’s financial situation, and his office confirmed that he would attend.

The session will open at 9 a.m. on Wednesday and pause until noon before the debate begins. The party plans to repeat questions it first put to Doskozil after the audit report was published in early July.

ÖVP state chairman Christoph Zarits and parliamentary group leader Bernd Strobl said the questions had not yet been answered sufficiently. Roland Fürst, the Social Democratic Party parliamentary group leader, recently criticised the session as an opposition “show” but said his party had no problem putting the facts on the table in parliament.

The audit office warned in July that the state faced an “acute and significant need for action” because its reserves had been exhausted. It forecast a cumulative overall loss of almost one billion euros for the period from 2020 to 2026. The Social Democratic Party rejected the criticism and called the report’s approach biased, while Doskozil said the state was financially stable.