Austrias most popular mayor: 50 years in power
Austrias most popular mayor can be found in the federal state of Carinthia.
His name is Valentin Deutschmann. He is 80 years old, and since 50 years he is the mayor of a little village in the east of Carinthias provincial capital Klagenfurt.
Grafenstein is the name of the municipality.
Now the 80-year-old has enough. He won’t run for the next election for the mayor in this month. “50 years in power are enough”, he says.
In the last election in 2003, he received 65,3 percent of the votes. In 1958 he was elected for the first time. He was such a good and talented politican that he won every election for the mayor in Grafenstein with an absolute majority.
Valentin Deutschmann is married with his wife called “Theresia”. He has two children. His son Stefan is the first vice-mayor of Grafenstein. It’s not sure yet if he is going to run for the election of the next mayor, and take the place of his father.
Valentin Deutschmann and his son are members of the Peoples Party.