Wolfgang Moitzi

Wolfgang Moitzi at the SPÖ federal party conference in 2008 in Linz

Wolfgang Moitzi (born August 1, 1984 in Judenburg , Styria) was the chairman of the Austrian Socialist Youth Association from 2007 to 2014 . Moitzi is currently studying law in Graz. In September 2018 he succeeded Max Lercher as a member of the Styrian state parliament .

Life

Moitzi grew up in Spielberg and graduated from the HTBL Kapfenberg in 2004 . At this time Moitzi began to get involved in politics when he joined the SJ Kapfenberg in 2002.

In connection to the military service at the airport fire at Zeltweg Air Base in Zeltweg he began in 2005 to study law at the University of Graz . In the same year he became regional chairman of the SJ Steiermark and thus a member of the presidium of the SPÖ Styria. He was also the initiator of the re-establishment of SJ Knittelfeld that year, which he chaired until 2007.

After the surprising resignation of Torsten Engelage in October 2007, he temporarily took over the executive chairmanship of the SJ Austria until he held 90.5% on the Association Day in Linz on November 1, 2008, after becoming a member of the SPÖ's federal executive committee in August 2008. was elected as the new chairman. On the day of the association in December 2012, he was again confirmed as association chairman. In the 2013 National Council election , Moitzi ran in the newly formed Upper Styria regional constituency in the promising third place on the SPÖ list, but was unable to obtain a basic mandate due to the poor performance of the SPÖ. In February 2014, around two months before the 2014 Association Day in Graz, he announced that he would not extend his mandate and would switch to the private sector. He was followed by Julia Herr , the first woman to be chairwoman of the Socialist Youth.

From 2008 to 2013 he was also chairman of the Austrian Federal Youth Council .

After retiring from the SJ chairmanship, Moitzi became a consultant in the office of Deputy Governor Siegfried Stepwieser , responsible for the areas of disability, needs-based minimum income and social assistance, poverty reduction and housing allowance, and from 2015 in the office of Regional Councilor Doris Kampus , responsible for the areas Aid for the disabled and senior citizens.

There is no relationship to Liane Moitzi , who also comes from Judenburg .

In September 2018 he replaced Max Lercher as a member of the Styrian state parliament . After the state election in 2019 , he was in the second session of the XVIII. Legislative period on January 21, 2020 once again sworn in as a member of the Styrian state parliament. He replaced a member of the SPÖ government in the Schützenhöfer II state government formed in December 2019 .

Political career

During Moitzi's tenure, the SJ was able to implement some demands both within the party and nationwide. For example, with the prescription-free morning-after pill, the standardization of youth protection, the direct payment of family allowances and the ban on free internships in the public service, longstanding demands of the socialist youth have been implemented.

Within the party, the Austria-wide campaign “Rich must pay!” Caused a change of opinion in the SPÖ, which then advocated wealth taxes. A democratization initiative was also toured throughout Austria in order to make the party “more programmatic, more democratic, more open, more equal and younger”. At the federal party convention of the SPÖ in 2012 in St. Pölten, the SJ was able to push through essential demands, so the motions to ban small games of chance and to develop a new party program with the greatest possible involvement of broad sections of the party were accepted.

International work

Under Moitzi, the international role of the socialist youth in the umbrella organizations of ECOSY and IUSY was strengthened again. Since then, both organizations have been appointed vice-presidents. In 2011 the IUSY World Festival took place in Austria under the organization of the SJ. With the “Rise Up!” Initiative, a Europe-wide coordinated campaign and petition on youth unemployment was organized for the first time, which was handed over to the EU Parliament in December 2012.

Political opinions

Moitzi took part in the youth workshop of the discussion series EU- (k) Ein monster at the FH Joanneum , where he advocated a complete separation of religion and state: "Crosses do not belong in public buildings, religion is a private matter."

In a speech at a demonstration in Vienna, he publicly advocated Arigona Zogaj's right to stay .

Moitzi advocates a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and in the long term wants to transfer the banks into public ownership.

Moitzi justifies his commitment to Marxism as follows:

“The Socialist Youth is based on a basic program that we decided in 2004. This is a traditional basic program with which we are clearly on Marxist soil. Right now, in times of financial crisis, Marx is experiencing a renaissance. After 160 years one can see today that Karl Marx's conclusions are still correct and that his analysis of society is still relevant. "

On the same subject, Moitzi put into perspective in an interview in Polilog that “there is no such thing as“ classical Marxism as such that can be implemented overnight ”.

A “social tax system” and “the reform of education” are just as central topics as the question of tuition fees , the rejection of which for Moitzi is “non-negotiable”.

Moitzi calls for a ban on the National People's Party and its youth organization JNVP.

He was also invited to ZIB 24 on March 27, 2009, where he took a position on the subject of youth unemployment and, among other things, advocated the introduction of an apprentice fund.

In the ORF discussion program in the ZENTRUM on October 18, 2009, he called for a greater increase in pensions according to the pensioner price index.

In a press release on January 28, 2014 - shortly after the disputes over the Akademikerball in Vienna - police officers are required to be labeled , a demand from the SJ that is more than two years old.