02/22/2023 09:01 (act. 02/22/2023 09:07)
Ash Wednesday 2022 will be political: the chairman of the federal FPÖ party, Herbert Kickl, takes the podium in Ried. ©APA/GERT EGGENBERGER (archive image)
In 2022, Ash Wednesday will again be a political sweep day.
At the traditional FPÖ farewell ceremony in Ried, Herbert Kickl takes the podium for the first time as a party leader. In Carinthia, the ÖVP invites people to a political Ash Wednesday a week and a half before the state elections, which is the party’s only major event in the current election campaign. And in Styria, former SPÖ federal manager Max Lercher gathers prominent comrades around him.
Ash Wednesday will be political again in 2022
In his presentation to 2,000 supporters at the Jahnturnhalle in Rieder, Kickl is flanked by Upper Austria state party chairman Manfred Haimbuchner, already a veteran of the beer-and-herring feast scene in Innviertel. At the Klagenfurt exhibition arena, ÖVP regional leader Martin Gruber receives support from Vienna and Germany: Federal Party President and Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer is expected, as well as former German Federal President Christian Wulff. And at the Oberweger Stadl in Judenburg, Upper Styria, this time Lercher brings his National Council colleague Kai-Jan Krainer and AK President Renate Anderl to the lectern.