A year ago the venerable wrote Timesthat a specter is haunting Austria’s old parties: a satirical movement with a “charismatic punk rock singer at its head” is about to become serious competition in the political business with the promise of free beer for everyone.
The person the British paper called a charismatic is Dominik Wlazny, his stage name is Marco Pogo, he is a trained doctor and bandleader and is so serious that he is proud of his work in the district assembly in Vienna’s Simmering district. In general, he tells the SZ on the phone, everything is no longer meant to be as funny as it was when the party was founded in 2015. He then refers to his proposals on child care, urban greening and stumbling blocks.
Dominik Wlazny at an anti-fascist rally in Vienna in March 2023.
(Photo: Franz Perc/IMAGO/CHROMORANGE)
The ghost, the beer party, isn’t quite as scary as the right-wing populist FPÖ, for example, which is currently leading the nationwide polls with 30 percent. After all: in the federal presidential election a year ago, Dominik Wlazny came third with 8.3 percent. And the beer party continues to make up ground. According to a survey for the tabloid Today The punk rocker is currently behind the SPÖ and FPÖ at twelve percent in the capital Vienna.
Wlazny suspects that this could only be due to the committed work of his beer party in the districts, but jokes aside: Of course there are also many votes from protest voters; traditional parties are stumbling everywhere with their sometimes outdated programs. And the parties in Vienna are the best example of how not to do it anyway.
The SPÖ is currently dealing with a few scandals
He might have a point there. SPÖ Mayor Michael Ludwig, who was long considered the most powerful mastermind in the party, has just announced that he will withdraw from federal politics. The reason may be a number of scandals that are severely damaging the image of the super managers in red Vienna: billions in aid for the city’s energy supplier. Suspicion of lucrative insider dealings by SPÖ officials in allotment gardens. Lavish expenditure on advertisements for party advertising.
The ÖVP doesn’t have a run in Vienna either, it never did; and the head of the state party recently received a lot of malice because he posted videos of how terribly depraved the city was and how inundated it was with migrants. What he tried to prove with the help of witnesses, who often turned out to be ÖVP officials. In general: Viennese people don’t like criticism of Vienna. The FPÖ, which is pulling away in the federal government by criticizing as much as possible and making as little constructive policy as possible, has 23 percent in the city. This is almost revolutionary, not to say spooky. The capital and only real metropolis in the country has been governed by social democrats since the collapse of the Danube Monarchy, with the exception of the Nazi era of course.
So now everything is in flux. And Dominik Wlazny senses his chance. After the publication of the latest survey, numerous international media wanted interviews again. And this time it was hardly about beer.