On the floor: Comrade Pamela Rendi-Wagner:
“Dear comrades.
Dear friends.
For more than four years now I have had the privilege of serving as Chair of our movement. A time I look back on with very mixed feelings. Because they were years of deprivation, marked by domestic and foreign policy crises, but above all by a virus whose origin we still do not know with absolute certainty, but whose effects we all felt and are feeling.
And as you know, this time the reins of action were not in the hands of social democracy. Nevertheless, it was important to me to fill in the deep ideological rifts that separate us from our competitors in order to jointly counter the greatest threat our country has had to face since the end of the Second World War.
As a doctor and expert, I was able to achieve a lot here, help to take away the horror of the virus and to know that the worst is behind us today.
But it is not just the pandemic that has challenged all of us and me as chair. The Ibiza scandal, the end of the Kurz system, a government that, faced with massive allegations of corruption and internal disputes, was and is often too busy with itself to be able to devote itself to the diverse challenges of our time.
Everywhere we as social democrats were and are required to show perspectives and to do what is necessary – even if that means expressing no confidence in a federal government for the first time.
Last but not least, it is also the increasing tensions in our movement itself that make it more and more difficult to get through with my content.
I made an effort, did my best from day one and fought for our party with all my heart and soul.
But the bottom line, I have to admit at this point, was that I didn’t succeed enough in getting people enthusiastic about my vision of a better future.
I regret that and I apologize to anyone I may have disappointed.
Nevertheless, this is no reason to give up. Social Democracy is not a one-woman show. We are a broad, strong and lively movement of outstanding personalities who prove every day what it means to bear responsibility.
In the companies, in the communities and also in the countries.
Just like comrade Hans Peter Doskozil, who is doing great work in Burgenland and who was honored by the voters with an absolute majority.
Yes, many things separate us. But there is much more that connects us. The love for social democracy, its history, to which we feel committed, and its future, which today more than ever lies in both of our hands.
So, as Chair, how should I not be pleased to know that there are people in our movement who, on the one hand, have already proven time and time again that they can do it, but on the other hand are also willing to take on even greater responsibility?
These are important weeks for Social Democracy and I am happy about the personal support I am experiencing – nevertheless, or precisely because of this, it is important to me to protect our party.
We must not allow ourselves to be divided. Not from the outside and certainly not from the inside.
Anyone who insults well-deserving comrades as “rightists” or even moves them in any way close to the Freedom Party does not mean well with our movement – which is so close to my heart.
For me it is therefore now time to do what is necessary again and to hand over the baton.
I have therefore informed the party executive of my decision not to run for chair again.
Instead, I support comrade Hans Peter Doskozil and wish him a lot of strength and health for the task ahead.
Friendship!”
Yes, she could have said that. Or writing, if you like. Open letters are quite modern in the SPÖ. Instead, the apparently democratic act of a binding member survey plunges the party into a deep crisis. The challenger is already being hounded and accused of being “not a social democrat”.
In any case, building a common future on this basis seems difficult.