The French writer Annie Ernaux and the Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis are accused of having a “problematic relationship” with Israel and the terrorist act of October 7th. National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) calls for them to be disinvited. Festival director Milo Rau rejects the allegations and says that those mentioned will not be present at the festival.
From May 17th, the Vienna Festival will proclaim the Free Republic of Vienna under its new director Rau. Ernaux and Varoufakis were selected as members of a “Council of the Republic”, a kind of fictional parliament. The concerns are taken “very seriously,” Rau emphasized in a statement. Nobel Prize winner for literature Ernaux supports the Israel boycott campaign BDS, but is not a member. Varoufakis has signed a petition for Israel to be excluded from the Venice Biennale, accusing Israel of genocide and concealing the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7th.
“Through the back door”
Sobotka had harsh words for the “Kurier”: “For me it is unbearable that under the pretext of freedom of art and freedom of expression, anti-Semitism is being brought into our country through the back door.” It is “our historic responsibility not to allow people who have such a distorted moral compass to be given a stage at one of the country’s largest cultural events.”
