“Carinthia decides between protecting its homeland and selling off the mountains to energy companies!”

One day before the referendum, the Carinthian FPÖ boss, club chairman Erwin Angerer, once again appealed to the people of Carinthia to vote YES to protect the Carinthian mountains and alpine pastures. “On Sunday there will be a referendum in Carinthia for the first time in 44 years, which will once again be about protecting our mountains. Back then it was about protecting the Nockberge, this time it is about protecting all Carinthian mountains and alpine pastures from being built with wind turbines. The population can send a clear signal against the construction of huge wind turbines in the mountains, which would change our landscape forever and further increase electricity prices. “The people of Carinthia have to pay for the expensive network expansion, while the corporations and electricity suppliers are the big winners,” says Angerer.

The FPÖ leader refers to the new legal opinion from university professor Urtz from the University of Salzburg. “This report has shown that the whole of Carinthia became a wind power zone as a result of the Carinthian Energy Transition Act. This new ‘Energy Transition Act’, which does not exist in any other federal state, stands above any implementing regulation,” said Angerer about the results of the report, which has already been sent to the state’s constitutional department. Well-known lawyers and former judges have confirmed this legal opinion. The SPÖ and ÖVP would also be well advised to take note of this, emphasizes Angerer.

The report also confirmed that the ÖVP’s announcement of a wind power zone regulation was a pure smokescreen and deliberate deception in order to manipulate the population before the referendum. “The ÖVP announced this regulation by the end of 2024, but never presented it! As the legal opinion has shown, a regulation for wind power zones would be invalid anyway, since the law is above it,” emphasizes the FPÖ leader. Therefore, wind turbines on the mountains are threatened not only in 7 municipalities, as the government claims, but throughout Carinthia. The protection of the mountains urgently needs to be anchored in law.

“On Sunday, it is not politicians or lobbyists, but the people of Carinthia who will decide whether they want to protect our mountains from the greed of corporations. Wind turbines can currently be built on every mountain in Carinthia! We want to stop this sell-off of our homeland so that the same thing doesn’t happen to the mountains as unfortunately happened to our lakes,” Angerer concluded.

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