Austria’s ‘Beer Party’ started as a joke. Now it may hold the keys to a government without the right.
https://www.semafor.com/article/08/30/2024/austrias-beer-party-started-as-a-joke-now-it-could-determine-an-election?utm_campaign=semaforreddit
by semafornews
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From Semafor’s Brad Glasser:
A beer-themed political party may hold the keys to a government without the right in Austria. The party is led by a man who calls himself Marco Pogo, a doctor who fronts the party’s in-house punk rock band: TURBOBIER. All caps.
What began as a satirical movement with negligible support in polls has risen to become a prominent political force in Austria, with potential to shape the next government after 2025’s elections. The Beer Party, created in 2015, has competed three times in its history. In the 2019 general election, the party took just 0.1% of the vote. The following year, in Vienna’s state election, Beer scored around 2%, campaigning on free beer in the form of “public beer fountains” and monthly allotments to households.
In 2022, Marco Pogo, running under his real name Dominik Wlazny, competed in Austria’s presidential election, and garnered 8% of the vote. For the Beer Party, this was a national show of strength, and sent the party hurtling forward in general election polls, reaching double digits in some surveys.
Despite the party’s goofy origins, Wlazny attempted to run a serious campaign for the presidential election, orienting himself as a progressive on issues like healthcare and education. Wlazny has continued to pursue a more conventional approach since then, even going as far to change the meaning of the party’s name: “BIER” is now an acronym, that in German stands for “I am in a reform movement.” With 5% of the vote, the party could provide the only path to forming a government without conservatives or the far-right, according to the latest Politico polling average.
But the beer-themed branding continues, and TURBOBIER will tour this December, about a year before elections are scheduled to be held. Beer and punk rock are what brought them to relevance in Austrian politics, so expect them to stick to their roots – even as they offer a more sober take on policy.
[Read the full story here.](https://www.semafor.com/article/08/30/2024/austrias-beer-party-started-as-a-joke-now-it-could-determine-an-election?utm_campaign=semaforreddit)
It is still nothing but a PR project for a musician
Farce before tragedy or tragedy before farce?
Meanwhile in Hungary there is a Two Tailed Dog Party that was started once upon a time as a joke. Now it’s becoming more and more a serious party, IIRC their candidate ended up as a district sub-mayor in the 12th district of the capital city Budapest – previously thought to be a “stronghold” of the government.
That reminds me of what happened in the netherlands a while back. Two comedians created a fake political party called ‘de tegenpartij’ (literally ‘the opponents’/’other party’), which in the universe of their sketch show was set up by two of their characters.
It was obviously meant as a joke but it went on to become so popular they had to kill of their characters (even doing so as part of a sketch where rhey attempt a coup and are revealed to have been shot by the police).
We had similar party in Poland in the 90s https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Beer-Lovers%27_Party
No! No this won’t do at all. The global economy isn’t doing well people! We need to keep Austrians who frequent beer halls OUT of politics now more than ever!
Co-ffee
In Romania “Aur” is an overtly fascist party that’s financially financed by Russia.Yet it’s still in top 4 political parties in the country