Viennese ÖVP boss Karl Mahrer is causing a stir again. The politician called the police because a sleeping man disturbed him. Two Greens officials intervened and confronted Mahrer, who wanted nothing to do with wrongdoing.
A green district council accuses Vienna’s ÖVP boss Karl Mahrer of organizing a “scandal”. Silvio Heinze photographed the politician on Mariahilfer Strasse as he was filmed next to a sleeping man. The city council was apparently in the process of calling the police for the cameras. Heinze tweeted: “Mahrer films himself calling the police because a Viennese man is sleeping on a couch and he doesn’t think he’s being ‘descriptive’. Don’t ask how he is and don’t call an ambulance.”
When asked about the scene, Mahrer said the man was drunk, disruptive and couldn’t lie down, Heinze reported to the “Kurier”. But that wouldn’t have been the truth. The person would only have had a “short nap”. Because: “Public space is for everyone.” After an intervention by district manager Markus Reiter (Greens), Mahrer called off the police operation.
Mahrer: Breathing was present
Mahrer wanted to refute the allegation of failure to provide aid with “facts”. He could have seen “breathing” present, the ex-police general tweeted. He would have wanted to leave an “investigation into the further facts” to “professionals”. Which in this case meant the police – not the rescue. Mahrer left open what the officials should have done.
He was out with the cameraman and photographer because “several people drew our attention to a worsening of the situation”. The sleeping man was just noticed. Mahrer describes his controversial approach as “looking”.
Mahrer’s scandal files
That brings back memories. The Viennese ÖVP boss recently dubbed his staged ‘Focal Point’ video series about Vienna’s Favoriten district with ‘look instead of looking away’. He spoke to “concerned” passersby on the spot. A little later it became clear that among those “involved” were two officials of the Vienna People’s Party, who were not mentioned either by name or as party members.
Before his “Focal Point” outage, Mahrer caused a stir with a shaky cell phone video. He went to the Brunnenmarkt in Vienna-Ottakring and was outraged that “Syrians, Afghans and Arabs” had seized power. When he was accused of xenophobia, he weakened his statements. His predilection for cinematic productions, on the other hand, seems unbroken.
Source: Krone
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