Tyrol ÖVP sets November conference to sharpen regional focus

Tyrol ÖVP leader Anton Mattle has announced a party conference for November 7 to adopt the party’s first independent Tyrol policy platform, ORF reported on Friday.

In an open letter to members, Mattle said the platform would allow the Tyrol branch to become more independent in its policies from the federal party. However, the branch rejected the idea of becoming a separate Christian Democratic party modelled on Germany’s CDU and CSU.

“We are not talking about exchanging names or logos, and of course we will remain connected to the ÖVP,” regional party manager Florian Klotz told the Austrian Press Agency. He said the Tyrol branch would remain part of the federal party.

The aim, Klotz said, was “more independence where it is needed and a clear focus on Tyrol”. On some issues, that could mean diverging from federal policy.

Mattle called for “more Tyrol” and said the region needed to regain the courage, pioneering spirit and belief in a better future shown by previous generations. He said Tyrol needed greater independence and more room to shape policies according to its own needs and ideas.

The Tyrol ÖVP should be the region’s “political pace-setter”, Mattle wrote. He said this did not mean isolating Tyrol from the rest of the world, but ensuring that the region could make its own decisions rather than having decisions made about it.

Mattle also criticised federal politics, saying solutions were often held up by responsibilities divided between different levels of government, unclear regulations and a confusing distribution of powers. He said this wasted time and resources, delayed procedures and frustrated residents.

In the letter, Mattle also criticised his own party. He said the ÖVP had once made people feel heard, understood and involved, but that it often failed to convey that feeling today. The party needed to take stock, he wrote, inviting residents to share their concerns.

The ÖVP said the initiative was not connected to the election campaign. The policy platform was intended to guide the party for the coming years and decades, while a specific platform for the Tyrol state election would be drawn up in the election year 2027.

Recent opinion polls have forecast a close contest between the ÖVP, which currently governs Tyrol with the SPÖ, and the Tyrol FPÖ led by Markus Abwerzger. Both parties were most recently shown at 29 percent. The ÖVP won 34.71 percent in the 2022 state election, its worst result up to that point.

A stronger emphasis on Tyrol is not new for the regional ÖVP. During the tenure of former governor and former regional party leader Wendelin Weingartner, the party was temporarily renamed “Wir Tiroler” in practice to open up the regional party and strengthen its Tyrol identity.

FPÖ leader Abwerzger sharply criticised the ÖVP plans, calling them a “ridiculous disavowal of responsibility” one year before the election.