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Chamber of Commerce elections: Vinzenz Harrer announces political departure!
New state spokesman Christian Kovac and Vinzenz Harrer are calling for changes in the Chamber of Commerce before the 2025 elections.
Chamber of Commerce elections: Vinzenz Harrer announces political departure!
Vinzenz Harrer, a prominent entrepreneur and sharp critic of the Styrian business association chairman Josef Herk, is moving to the business association UNOS in order to bring about changes in the upcoming Chamber of Commerce elections in March 2025. Harrer announced that he would give up all of his functions in the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK), in the Economic Association and in the Weiz Chamber of Commerce by the end of the year. This decision, reported ORF Styria, was with the aim of bringing a new breath of fresh air into the Styrian economic association and breaking the economic association's desired two-thirds majority.
Harrer, who has repeatedly expressed criticism about the possibilities and structures of the economic association in recent years, now sees the time as having come to take action. “We want to break the two-thirds majority of the WB,” explains Harrer and calls for a direct election of the leadership in the Chamber of Commerce in order to create more democracy and efficiency. He expressed concerns about the UNOS's call for the abolition of compulsory membership, stressing that it must provide a necessary unity to meet the challenges of the time, as he stated in Small newspaper clarifies.
Criticism of Josef Herk and the status quo
The focus of Harrer's criticism is also Josef Herk, who was heavily criticized by the public in the past because of his fee scandal. Harrer, who has been seen as uncomfortable, does not believe that the economic association under Herk's leadership is taking the right steps in times of crisis: "He was a president of the hearts as long as the economy was doing well," says Harrer. But he remains skeptical about the chamber's ability to make necessary reforms. The new UNOS regional head, Christian Kovac, supports Harrer's goal and further highlights the dissatisfaction of small and medium-sized companies in Styria, which feel that they are not sufficiently represented in the current chamber structure.
Together with the UNOS, Harrer hopes to make the chamber more transparent and, in particular, to achieve a return of chamber funds to support companies in need that have a majority. It remains to be seen whether these changes will actually become reality in the upcoming election campaign and whether Harrer can implement the reforms he has demanded.