A punk rocker who’s the usage of beer in his bid to grow to be Austria’s subsequent president says he is dealing with a “David versus Goliath” struggle.
Dominik Wlazny — higher recognized by way of his level title Marco Pogo — is working to be elected because the alpine nation’s head of state.
He’s already won repute for conserving a promise to put in a lager fountain in Vienna after his Beer Party — which he based in 2014 — received 11 seats there in native elections in 2020.
At 35, Wlazny is the rustic’s youngest ever presidential candidate. He’s perfect referred to as a singer within the punk band Turbobier — that means “Turbo Beer”.
Wlazny admits he faces an uphill struggle as opinion polls put him as getting 5% of the vote proportion, in comparison to round 60% for incumbent Alexander Van der Bellen, 78, in line with AFP information company.
But the budding flesh presser says he has quite a lot of concepts to “help Austrian people” take care of inflation, the go back of struggle in Europe and the COVID-19 pandemic forward of the election on 9 October.
Wlazny advised Beeer Mag in 2020 that he used the alcoholic beverage to ship his political concepts.
“Beer is a wonderful thing, a great stimulant, a social enhancer, the lowest common denominator,” he mentioned.
Wlazny says he can be a “moral figure distanced from partisan politics” if elected president, which is in large part a ceremonial position in Austria.
“Why do we have 1,245 ski lifts in the mountains of Tyrol but no wind turbines?” Wlazny says, including that protective the surroundings is a concern for him.
However, with out the improve of a big birthday party, Wlazny is principally restricted to campaigning on the web, the place he has over 55,000 fans on Twitter.
He has a handful of trendy election marketing campaign posters round Austria however says some had been stolen by way of folks conserving them as souvenirs.
Having studied medication earlier than going full-time as a musician, Wlazny has a novel promoting level in comparison to Austria’s six different presidential applicants.
“I am very happy that there is someone who stands up for good values… He is young, he is of this era,” Brigitta Koppelhuber, 78, a retiree from Vienna, advised AFP.
Current president Van der Bellen, of Austria’s Green Party, is broadly regarded as to be a favorite within the upcoming elections.
He is recently polling above the 50 consistent with cent of the vote required to win the presidential election outright in October. If now not, he’s going to face a run-off in November with the nearest candidate.
Austria’s final election in 2016 noticed a detailed struggle between Van der Bellen and far-right flesh presser Norbert Hofer, who misplaced by way of round 350,000 votes.
