Stocker's big moment: election as party leader in Wiener Neustadt!

Stocker's big moment: election as party leader in Wiener Neustadt!

At an eagerly awaited federal party conference on March 29th in Wiener Neustadt, Christian Stocker will be officially elected as the new chairman of the ÖVP. The 65-year-old, who succeeded Karl Nehammer, was until now only the executive party chairman. The event will take place at Arena Nova and start at 1 p.m., the party confirmed on Friday. In addition to Stocker, four deputies will also be elected, including the Austrian political leaders Karoline Edtstadler, Thomas Stelzer, Sophia Kircher and Veronika Marte. The election committee unanimously agreed on these candidates oe24.at reported.

The election is particularly important because it marks a remarkable promotion of women in the People's Party. Nico Marchetti, the general secretary of the ÖVP, emphasized that three of the four deputies are female and the proportion of women among the delegates reaches almost 50 percent. These developments come not only to celebrate the ÖVP's 80th anniversary, but also represent a step towards a stronger female presence in the party leadership, he said noen.at. Stocker faces the challenge of surpassing the high election results of his predecessors, which are traditionally very positive in the first elections as chairman. Nehammer was elected in 2022 with 100 percent, which sets the bar quite high for Stocker's candidacy. Sebastian Kurz and Reinhold Mitterlehner also achieved high approval ratings in their ballots.