Bregenz Festival

President rails against “either-or” mentality

(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen opens the Bregenz Festival with an incendiary speech. He warns against social exhaustion and the brutalization of communal coexistence. The head of state criticizes an "either-or" mentality that is tiring and "unnerving" many people.  

Van der Bellen sees the opening of the Bregenz Festival every year as a wonderful opportunity to become "a little uncomfortable". No sooner said than done. Because in his opinion, almost everything is upsetting anyway:

• "Climate - upsets and frustrates." 
• "Politics - upsetting and frustrating."
• "The EU - upsets and frustrates."
• "Democracy - upsets and frustrates."
• "Even an asterisk or a colon - upsets and frustrates."

The Federal President observes a crumbling of social coexistence. Is this due to a spreading tiredness? "No, Austria is not tired! We are not like that," continued Van der Bellen.

Van der Bellen: Tired in a way
Democracy, peace, freedom, security, climate, homeland and Europe are still of interest. What makes people tired is the way they talk about them - they are "fed up". 

Van der Bellen criticizes constant abbreviations: "The world we talk about in public is very simple. It is explained in a flash. It is unambiguous. Something is either black or white, big or small, up or down, good or bad."

Anger at the "either-or" mentality
The Federal President grumbles about this "either-or" mentality. Either climate terrorist or air polluter. Either angry citizen or do-gooder. Either a swearer or a sleepyhead. Either friend or foe. "Open the drawer - put it in - close the drawer. Practical! But dangerous," the 80-year-old points out. This principle divides people.

These drawers are often labeled. They are then called "the media, the elites or the system". However, the reality is simply much more complicated: "For example, which drawer do you put someone in who harvests their own organic cucumbers and eats a pork schnitzel with them? Or a person who cycles to work every day and drives through Italy in an old VW bus in the summer? What about someone called Mustafa who speaks in a harsh Tyrolean dialect?"

President sees divisive forces at work
A genuine, nuanced conversation requires time and effort. But time is too short and effort too laborious. Van der Bellen has been asking himself recently: where has our composure gone? "We humans are not either-or! We are everything in between."

Division is a poison.

Alexander Van der Bellen

Bild: HBF/Karlovits

Unfortunately, there are forces that "do not use our wonderful, Austrian contradictions as a bridge to each other, but as an instrument of division". According to the 80-year-old, however, this can only work if people allow themselves to be instrumentalized: "Don't play along. We all have a say in whether the atmosphere between us is trusting or poisoned. And division is poison."

Clearing out the drawers
At the end of the spiral, only one thing awaits: violence! "Like on Saturday in the USA. There must be no room for that." Contempt is not an election program. And hatred is no solution to problems. Van der Bellen's final recommendation: clear out the pigeonholes. "So that we can talk to each other normally again - about climate, politics, democracy."