A video on Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s Twitter account is currently causing a lot of guesswork. “Believe in this Austria,” Nehammer cryptically tells his followers. The video refers to September 26. What happened there?
With the quote, Nehammer refers to Leopold Figl, the first chancellor of the Second Republic (1945 to 1953). Figl gave this phrase to people after a catastrophe, and Nehammer now wants to do the same, the video says.
The scenes are pieced together from the ORF’s most recent ‘Summer Talk’, and the chancellor is shown several times taking notes in pencil. At the end, the date September 26, 2023 is displayed, accompanied by an acoustic heartbeat.
New elections? Wrong?
On the one hand, rumors have recently spread about a possible early election of the National Council. Nehammer only recently denied this in the “Krone” interview. People on social media are also wondering whether the Chancellor’s PR people may have got the date wrong: the national holiday falls on October 26, exactly one month after the date mentioned in the video.
New campaign
However, the video suggests that the chancellery will simply start a new image campaign. In the spirit of Donald Trump’s ‘Make America great again’ or Barack Obama’s ‘Yes we can’, the aim is to convey confidence and self-confidence: Austria as the winner of the crisis – which goes back to the work of the federal government, especially that of the Chancellor.
It is not the first time that Nehammer has used his historical predecessor – the ÖVP chancellor used the quote “Faith in Austria” almost a year ago during the ceremony for Figl’s 120th birthday. Nehammer said at the time that Austrians lived in new dimensions in times of crisis. After three years of the pandemic, the war came. Something that “seemed completely unimaginable to us has become reality.”
Figl: “We have nothing”
Figl’s words originally come from a Christmas speech from 78 years ago. “I can’t give you anything for Christmas, I can’t give you candles for the Christmas tree, if you have any, no piece of bread, no coal to heat, no glass to cut. We have nothing. I can only ask you: believe in this Austria!”, the ÖVP chancellor said at the time. It was about hope and reconstruction – eight months after the end of the Second World War.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
