Commentary on the Current Media Coverage

A commentary on the notable media coverage following our action at Landhausplatz and ahead of the Pfunds referendum:

Immediately after the petition was submitted, the Tyrolean newspapers were conspicuously silent, while nationwide media reported as usual. The ÖVP (Austrian People’s Party) sent a Member of Parliament who made all kinds of claims in an attempt to discredit the action and the petition. The Kronen Zeitung wrote about this the day after the action, and a few days later the Rundschau followed suit:

“The signatures supposedly do not reflect the opinion of the affected population” – even though, a year ago, Sölden voted 96% against the water diversion project, and just days before Pfunds would also speak out against it.

The petition is allegedly orchestrated by “some NGO headquarters in Vienna,” while conveniently ignoring the thousands of handwritten signatures on hundreds of paper lists, collected by numerous supporters in the valleys and across Tyrol.

She complains about the “eternal obstructionism of the environmental lobby,” completely ignoring the fact that TIWAG (Tyrolean Hydropower Company) has mainly obstructed itself by failing, over 13 years and five revisions, to get the authorities to even accept the project.

It’s also astonishing that she lumps together agrarian communities, artists and cultural workers, tourism and mountain sports associations, and local citizens’ initiatives — alongside, yes, the WWF and Global2000 — under the umbrella of an “environmental lobby.”

Two weeks later, and thus one week before the referendum in Pfunds, suddenly, on the same day, articles appeared in the Kronen Zeitung and the Oberländer Rundschau accusing WWF of “manipulating public opinion” ahead of the vote. The Rundschau lays out the “PROs” of the Kaunertal expansion, but unfortunately forgets the “CONs.” And the Krone simply publishes vague claims.

After the referendum, the clear NO from the people of Pfunds could no longer be denied, and in response, the Tyrolean Federation of Industry presented a survey showing that 70% of the Tyrolean population supports expanding hydropower in general – but only 48% support the Kaunertal expansion specifically, which the Krone interpreted as “less clear approval.”

In the end, even the chief editor of the Tyrolean Kronen Zeitung couldn’t resist publishing a commentary on the Kaunertal debate. In it, he accuses the people of Pfunds of fundamentally supporting hydropower – just not in their own community. That’s both stupid and brazen, especially considering the sacrifices this community has already made (and if anyone in Pfunds still had a Krone subscription, we hope it’s been canceled by now).

In any case, we’re pleased to see that the ever-growing resistance to the expansion plans is clearly making some people nervous. Our action at Landhausplatz evidently made it clear enough that it’s not just “the environmental lobby” that’s pushing back. And the result of the Pfunds referendum is so unmistakable that even the ÖVP was left speechless: with a voter turnout (68%) higher than that of the last Tyrolean state election (65%), this clear result can no longer be easily swept under the rug.