SPÖ state leaders welcome Babler’s planned year-end exit

Leaders of Austria’s SPÖ state branches have welcomed party chief Andreas Babler’s announcement that he will step down as vice-chancellor and party leader by the end of the year, saying the party is on a good path, ORF reported.

Babler said after a meeting of the federal party and its state organisations on Sunday that his departure would help unite the party and that internal debates must end.

Lower Austria SPÖ leader Sven Hergovich said the nine state branches, women in the party and the FSG, the Social Democratic Trade Unionists, had pulled together. He called that an important signal for the party’s future. Hergovich said he was confident that Marterbauer, Science Minister Eva-Maria Holzleitner and parliamentary group leader Philip Kucher would help guide the party into calmer times.

Vorarlberg SPÖ leader Mario Leiter called the outcome a workable solution that everyone could accept. He said Babler had contributed constructively to the discussions and that agreement had been reached. Leiter said the meeting did not discuss media manager Gerhard Zeiler, who had prompted the debate over the party leadership.

Holzleitner is expected to play a central role in the party’s leadership changes. On Saturday, she said she was not available to lead the SPÖ, even on an interim basis. Speaking to Ö1’s morning programme on Monday, she described the plan as an orderly transition, saying previous leadership changes had left uncertainty about who would take over and how the process would work. She said she and Kucher would work to build bridges and unite the party, with the aim of regaining public trust.