Burgenland Municipal Association appoints new director and expands support role

The Burgenland Municipal Association has appointed Erwin Giefing as its new director and plans to become a service centre for its member municipalities, ORF reported. He joins association president Markus Ulram, who took over the role in spring from Leo Radakovits after more than 23 years.

Giefing has worked as an administrative director in Wiesen, as director of the ÖVP parliamentary group in the Burgenland state parliament, and most recently as finance director and deputy municipal director in Eisenstadt.

Before next year’s municipal and mayoral elections, Giefing and Ulram plan to visit member municipalities to identify their problems and where they need support. “We want to be a partner, a service centre and a strong representative of our municipalities,” Ulram said.

The ÖVP currently has 70 mayors in Burgenland. Ulram said the party aims to retain that number or win more seats, and he is confident it will field candidates in every municipality. He plans to stand again as mayoral candidate in Halbturn, although discussions still need to take place.

Ulram also called for “fresh money” for municipalities, saying their finances were strained and that salary payments were no longer secure everywhere. He said the situation left local authorities with no room to invest or maintain infrastructure.