Austrian Politics as Soap Opera
The Scandals Surrounding a Green Politician Expose Northern European Depravity
Another essay penned for the new Café Américain Magazine, with thanks and acknowledgement to
.Austrian Politics as Soap Opera
By Stephan Sander-Faes, Café Américain Magazine, 7 June 2024 [source]
Austrian politics have been quite turbulent of late. It all started a few weeks ago when, after months of rumours, the Green Party presented 23-year-old Lena Schilling as their leading candidate for the current EU elections (June 6-9). Schilling, a young activist in the mould of Sweden’s Greta Thunberg or Germany’s Luisa Neubauer, first garnered media attention protesting the construction of a new motorway through, or underneath, the Lobau, one of Vienna’s main protected wetlands. Projected for decades, this new thoroughfare aims at re-routing heavy traffic around the heavily motorized Austrian capital. The most recent proposal envisions a tunnel which is to run 60 metres underground, underneath the area’s groundwater table. However, not even this massively expensive solution—pushed by then-city councillor and Green Party stalwart Maria Vassilakou—would meet with climate activists’ approval.
Schilling cut her teeth in this particular context. Aided and abetted by left-of-centre legacy and tabloid media attention, the young activist was soon considered by the chattering classes to be Austria’s Next Political Contender. Rumours about Schilling’s potential nomination for the EU elections abounded in autumn 2023, with both the Social Democrats and the Greens, as well as several other, smaller left-wing fractions, being hotly discussed as potential nominators by media pundits and on social media.
When the Greens finally nominated Schilling—a young climate activist formed in the mold of Greta—to lead their ticket in late January 2024, seemingly all was well in these circles.
This occurred mainly within self-contained bubbles, and when the Greens finally presented Schilling to lead their ticket in late January 2024, seemingly all was well in these circles. What appeared as a more or less canny political move, however, soon backfired drastically.
The (Self)Victimisation Horizon
Only a day after the official launch of the Greens’ EU election campaign, ugly allegations appeared in Austrian and later also in German legacy media…
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