The Austrian Beer Party - A Beerocratic Movement

If there is one thing most people in politics can agree on, it is that everyone loves beer. This was a party I stumbled upon by accident and have been meaning to write about for some time and with the 2024 Austrian legislative election coming up in the near future the timing seems right. A party started as a joke, that seemingly has moved beyond that, with a real opportunity to enter parliament in a small form and a transition into a more serious image. A seeming blend of satire and serious political critiques, the BIER party offers voters an option to vote for reform and challenge political corruption, with the name BIER standing for  "Bin in einer Reformbewegung" or “I am a reform movement” . 

Founded in 2014 by Dominik Wlazny, a doctor who became the front man of an Viennese punk-rock band and holds the stage name of Marco Pogo, they are heralded as a “Beerocratic movement” and have stood for several elections since their creation. Wlazny states his reasoning for the greater recent involvement of the beer party within politics as coming in response to the 2019 Ibiza affair. This was a situation that involved leaders of the Austrian Freedom Party being caught up in a scandal where they seemingly were recorded offering government contracts in exchange for positive media coverage. This caused a collapse of the coalition government as well as a vote of no confidence in chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who was later convicted of perjury. 

The parties first involvement in an election came in the 2019 parliamentary election, giving out beer to push themselves onto the ballot, taking advantage of political disillusionment caused by the aforementioned scandal to steal 4946 votes. 

This was seen as a political win for the party, who then outlined plans to run in the 2020 Viennese state election. Their ten point programme in the build up to this election highlights the parties interesting ability to blend political satire with serious issues and reservations held by the public. This included replacing the Hochstrahlbrunnen in Vienna with a beer fountain as well as my personal favourite policy (that I wish a party would implement here in the UK) of universal beer provision for all Austrian households. The more serious aspects of this programme included aptitude tests for all politicians (a view that remains a key part of the party's image), helping cover costs to support the culture scene in Vienna post COVID  and a message to live and let live (except for shandy drinkers). All of this was kicked off at beer rallies which has to be undoubtedly the best way to launch a campaign (UK take notes because our politics is depressing). While unsuccessful on a larger scale, they were able to win local mandates within 11 districts in Vienna. Here is the full list of all 10 points for anyone interested:

• A beer fountain for Vienna replacing the Hochstrahlbrunnen 

• Allow outdoor dining in winter

• Mandatory aptitude test for politicians

• Cover fixed pandemic-related costs to save the culture scene

• Abolish mandatory closing times for restaurants and bars

• Abolish tax on drinks in bars/restaurants and compensate with a new 50% tax on Radlers and "other atrocities"

• Universal monthly provision of a barrel of beer to all Austrian households (50L per adult and 20L per child)

• Banning Radlers in Vienna and instituting a Radler buyback programme exchanging Radlers for beer

• Increasing voter turnout by allowing voters to "return the seriousness to Austrian politics that it deserves"

• A person is a person, live and let live (except for Radler-drinkers) (radler= shandy) 

Next for the party came its leader Wlazny running for the 2022 presidential election. Despite coming in a distant third place with 8.3% of the vote, this reflected a sizable growth for the party. In my research for this, I found that this election reflected a large level of electoral dissatisfaction within Austria at the time, which may be how they were able to garner this level of votes. Wlazny was very successful with younger voters and took this election as an opportunity to try and somewhat distance himself from his party's image as more of a joke party and transform it into a real force for change within Austrian politics. (source)

This history of the party tells us several things that will be useful to outline before we move on to looking at the current goals, aims and prospects of the party. While being a joke, there is very clearly a serious message it aims to send beneath the surface, a message that Austrian politics requires fundamental change to tackle corruption, as well as an appetite, not just for beer but also to push positive change and success for the country. It also shows us how this movement has managed to develop over time, while support has not grown for the party as they had expected Wlazny has a “glass half full” approach for the future as the party seems to want to transition into a more serious political institution with clearer images and messages not just tied to beer. This shift is visible with a look at their campaigning and message on their website in the build up to next month's election. 

A breakdown of the BIER party website offers a deep insight into the direction it is taking. Please excuse anything lost in translation as sadly I have not touched German since GCSE so everything has been translated into English. The party's opening message is in line with the direction mentioned earlier “We are new, independent and fresh. We fight against abuse of power and corruption”. A more general look at what they stand for is then offered:

Children and Youth

• Active youth participation + a fight against child poverty

Rent

• Affordable homes, renters rights, more social housing

education

• Educational equality, Promoting educational institutions as places of integration, diversity and inclusion

Everyday

• Affordable shopping, Expansion of public transportation

women

• Equality, right to choose, fight against domestic violence

Business

• Focus on SMEs (Small and medium-sized enterprises), more apprenticeships, innovation, increased globalisation

health

• Health care reform, better working conditions for health workers

energy

• Environmental policy, implementation of the Paris climate agreement

Art and culture

• Affordability of art for all

future

• Focus on youth, promoted research and climate neutrality, improved defence for the country

Deeper aspects of these policy agendas are then explored in a section jokingly titled “Menu”. The largest portion of which comes in a section calling for depoliticization of many aspects of the country. These include:

•  Aptitude tests for ministers (basically the creation of a commission to select the most suitable candidate from three selected put forward by the coalition in the process of forming government, in order to make sure the best possible ministers are selected for government).

• Greater transparency within politics.

• Maximum of 2093 election posters to make contests fairer.

• Creation of people's councils to make non-partisan decisions and bring in new ideas and solutions without the shroud of a political agenda.

• Removal of politics from the ORF (publicly owned media company in Austria) as they believe the federal government currently has too much influence in the running of it.

• Removal of politics from the justice system.  

Another aspect of policy that particularly interested me personally (because of the UK’s frankly abysmal state of it currently) was their migration and asylum policy. This was outlined well within their “menu” and offers what seem to be effective solutions to tackle asylum and illegal immigration. These are:

• Compulsory german and culture lessons from day 1 for asylum seekers to give greater cultural integration.

• Better vetting to make sure those coming in have key skills and or access to training in order to make them useful once they come in.

• Better management of how many people are coming in “Three immigrant children in a school class are a living example of integration, 20 are an overload” a very good explanation of the issue of mass immigration in europe 

• Critical of family reunification in vienna - overloaded the system

• Fight against gang crime with greater policing for local areas and a better system of asylum integration to prevent culture wars - targeted prevention makes public spaces safer for everyone.  

These are just two aspects of the “menu” the beer party offers. I advise whoever is reading this to go and have a look through the whole section as it offers an interesting look into the party's overall goal in all areas of policy. It seems that the future of European Beerocracy has found its voice, with the beer party now delivering a clear statement of intent that it no longer just wants to be seen as a joke, as well as polls predicting it to garner around 5-7% of the vote, with them requiring only around 4% to enter parliament under Austria’s representative voting system.

The makeup of the party is also interesting, it is a very youthful group, with their candidates ranging from 26-49 years old. Many of these also have little to no formal political experience, with them mostly being individuals linked to the arts or teachers at a glance. 

All of this started as a look into a joke party in my eyes, but as I delved deeper into this I realised that the beer party was more than it appeared to be. There is a very real opportunity for this movement to capitalise on a lack of trust within Austrian politics in order to steal votes and it was interesting to see how it developed over time. It proves that new parties can gain traction even if they start as a joke and regardless of how the next election goes, their growth from a joke party into a more serious one is fascinating to look into.