On Gigi D'Agostino

Mikl-Leitner: “Rethink self-censorship!”

Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP)

(Bild: APA/HANS PUNZ)

"Banning a song is like going back to the Middle Ages," explains the Italian DJ in an interview with the "Krone" newspaper. Lower Austria's governor takes a similar view and is now calling on people to "reconsider well-intentioned self-censorship".

Videos showing drunken revellers chanting racist slogans to the beat of the song caused a media outcry and public outrage around Gigi D'Agostino's song "L'amour toujours". Radio stations even removed the song from their programs as a result. D'Agostino himself clearly distanced himself from this misuse and spoke of a "racist decision" in the "Krone" interview. Now the discussions are also calling Lower Austria's governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) onto the scene.

In the end, it is the stupid people who decide which songs can still be played and which cannot. And we should not give them this power.

Johanna Mikl-Leitner

"Many young people who organize summer festivals for their clubs on a voluntary basis are now unsettled. They ask me whether they are still allowed to play this song or whether it will put them in the right corner. And you can really take that worry away from them," explains the head of the province to the "Krone".

And she clarifies: "Nobody is suddenly a bad person because they play this song or dance to it. Nobody really needs to be talked into that. Any song can be misused by particularly stupid people". According to Mikl-Leitner, it would therefore only be sensible to reconsider this well-intentioned self-censorship.

If this door is opened once, those oblivious to history will take advantage of it and abuse other harmless songs. "They will film themselves, post them online and provoke further bans. In the end, the stupid people will decide which songs can still be played and which cannot. And we should not give them this power," Mikl-Leitner concluded.