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19. 01. 10. - 12:00

FPÖ candidate will boost Fischer bid

Comment by Thomas Hochwarter

President Heinz Fischer’s bid for a second term in office will benefit if the Freedom Party (FPÖ) decides to nominate a candidate.

Heinz-Christian Strache, head of the right-wing opposition party, recently announced the FPÖ would definitely name someone to challenge Fischer’s campaign.

Barbara Rosenkranz, head of the FPÖ’s Lower Austrian branch, is rumoured to be preparing to run for president in the elections set to take place in April.

While analysts see a potential of around ten per cent for the mother-of-ten – who represents the FPÖ’s ultra-conservative wing – her nomination as well as the running of any other candidate would come in as handy support for Fischer.

The 71-year-old former Social Democratic (SPÖ) Education Minister has been accused by conservative newspapers of failing to make his point on controversial topics too often.

Polls have shown that Lower Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) Governor Erwin Pröll – who ruled himself out of a run for the presidency – is the only politician with a chance of beating Fischer, whose activities would be overshadowed by a lack of competition if no other main party puts up a candidate.

The running of an FPÖ candidate would boost Fischer’s campaign as it would enable him to put his views across more effectively than he has so far.

If the FPÖ or the ÖVP nominate candidates for the election, it would also stop tabloid media branding the presidential election a waste of tax-payers’ money under current circumstances.

Fischer can meanwhile prepare his portfolio for the next six years – unless Hermann Maier suddenly says it has always been his dream to be Austrian president.

Austrian Times

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