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HUBERT'S DESK

Upper Austrian Election Campaign – blatant attacks on common sense

25 September 2021 | Text: Hubert Achleitner

"Rational government" - the Freedom Party (of all people!); "Organic or poison / Rationality or chaos" – the Greens and Armageddon; "Politics that think like you" – the New Austria and Liberal Forum, to whom are they referring? Not me, right? Yes, it is a massive attack on the common sense of the population of Upper Austria. So, it's a perfect pairing when Provincial Governor Stelzer claims to stand for "decency and common sense" and yet promises in a letter addressed to "dear Upper Austrians": "… the people here [in Upper Austria] will have a better future than those elsewhere." Does he mean in the other provinces? Or the rest of Europe? The world? "America First" was one thing. Now it's "Upper Austria first!" Can that be reconciled with the concept of compassion? (Another of Stelzer's battle cries on posters.)
No, "dear" Governor, it's not just nonsensical, it's inhumane, indecent, and unchristian – and incompatible with common sense. But that regularly falls by the wayside during election campaigns. Thank God that the day after tomorrow, that is, after's Sunday's elections, these visual word salads will end up, where they belong, on the dung heap of history.

Hubert Achleitner
Goisern, 25 September 2021