 His replacement as party leader was widely interpreted as the result of the rising criticism of Petzner's former media appearances.Both Petzner and Scheibner were elected two of five vice chairmen of the party (the other 3 being Stadler the European Parliament future leading candidate of the party, Haider's sister Haubner and former party leader of the BZÖ Westenthaler).On 26 April 2009 at the party congress in Linz, Bucher was elected as the new leader of the party.