Tyrolean ÖVP plans membership separate from federal party

Tyrol’s ÖVP plans to let people join its state party without automatically joining the national ÖVP, ORF reported. Delegates are due to vote on the change at a party convention in Innsbruck on November 7, a year before the state election.

The proposed change requires an amendment to the party’s statutes. The convention is also set to approve the Tyrolean ÖVP’s first standalone principles programme.

State party leader and Governor Anton Mattle said the party wanted “more independence and more Tyrol”. He said the state party was taking a constructive, policy-based approach to distinguishing itself from national politics, and that the new membership option was aimed at people unhappy with federal politics who still wanted to support him.

Under the proposed rules, anyone aged 14 or older could join the Tyrolean ÖVP if they supported its principles and programme and agreed to meet the obligations set out in its statutes. Members could also choose to join the Austrian ÖVP and one of its affiliated organisations.

The party has previously emphasised its Tyrolean identity. During Wendelin Weingartner’s time as governor and state party leader in the 1990s, it was briefly known in practice as “Wir Tiroler”.

Recent polls put the ÖVP and the Tyrolean FPÖ, led by Markus Abwerzger, neck and neck at 29 per cent each. Abwerzger wants to replace Mattle as governor. In the 2022 state election, the ÖVP won 34.71 per cent, its worst result at the time, while the FPÖ received 18.84 per cent.

FPÖ secretary-general Michael Schnedlitz called the planned membership a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Stocker. He said the move showed that the ÖVP’s state organisations were beginning to distance themselves from the federal party.