Former FP party leader Jörg Haider was the first domestic politician to make headlines that day with his speeches and attacks on political competition. In 2001, for example, Haider said of the former president of the Israelite Community Ariel Muzicant: “I don’t understand at all how someone named Ariel can have so much dirt on him.”
Ash Wednesday in blue was always a calculated border crossing.
After Haider, Heinz-Christian Strache practiced this discipline for many years. Now it is the current FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl who wrote the most biting punchlines in the speeches of his predecessors.
Special attention
Especially in this election year, particular attention is being paid to the appearance of the FPÖ leader. It is the FPÖ’s 31st Political Ash Wednesday in Ried, and the event has been fully booked for weeks with around 2,000 visitors in the Jahnturnhalle, says Rieder FP district manager Erhard Weinzinger. The main program items are the speeches by Kickl and Upper Austria’s FPÖ state leader LH-Deputy. Manfred Haimbuchner.
There will also be a counter-event in Ried once more this year. The “Grandmas Against the Right” have registered a rally in the immediate vicinity of the Jahnturnhalle.
Compared to Ried, the competition’s Ash Wednesday events have a difficult time, despite prominent guests: The ÖVP is expecting 1,000 visitors in the trade fair arena in Klagenfurt, and in addition to Chancellor and party leader Karl Nehammer, the German former defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg will also speak.
The SPÖ meets in Upper Styria, where National Council member Max Lercher invites people to the Zechnerhalle in Kobenz. SPÖ leader Andreas Babler, SP women’s leader Eva-Maria Holzleitner and the Styrian SP regional leader Anton Lang take part in the program in front of 500 guests. (wb)
Author
Wolfgang Braun
Deputy editor-in-chief, head of political department
Wolfgang Braun
