Last week during several days' lecture, there has been mention of certain posters put out by the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), the country's dominant far-right political party. These posters have been the work of the man whose face is on them, Heinz-Christian Strache, chairman of the FPÖ. All of them have party slogans boldly displayed; one of the most prominent slogans displayed reads as follows: "Mehr Mut für unser Wiener Blut - Zu viel Fremdes tut niemandem gut." This slogan almost rhymes in English as it does in German: "More courage for our Viennese Blood – Too many foreigners does no one good."
It's easy to tell what it is and what Strache is implying. This is an anti-immigration slogan. What makes is particularly controversial is it's reference to "Wiener Blut," a waltz by Johann Strauss II that has absolutely no political connoatations. Yet Strache is drawing up this Austrian hallmark from history to argue against non-Austrian peoples from entering the country and city. He has even made other slogans in the same vein: "Pummerin, not muezzin," "Vienna must not become Istanbul," and so on.
I'm glad to hear from Professor Stuart that this guy is considered kind of a wack-job in Vienna, and that there has been a big backlash against him and his posters. (I've even seen several of his posters with obviously deliberate tears across them.) And from hearing more about him, I have to agree. Supposedly, he's been trying to reach out to ethnic Serbs in Vienna, just how can turn them against the Turks. I see something wrong here: he's against non-Viennese blood, yet he's trying to seek support from such people? It's apparent that he's not really against foreigners; he's against foreign religion - Islam.
And this is something that seems to be happening all over the western world - even back home. Islamophobia is a big issue here, and while I do not know what will happen regarding it in the future, I am fascinated by it's relationship to Austria and Austrian history. For Austria has, upon examination, been traditionally wary of foreigners, to put it mildly. It's recent past forces it to re-examine itself, something it is still trying to do today. And how does the country do that in light of these new social and cultural challenges?
We shall see in October, when Vienna holds city-wide elections. Until then...HC Strache is a wack-job. And I think this political cartoon that I found in a newspaper at Cafe Central agrees with me.
The German word of the day is "krank," meaning "ill."
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