Personally written

Cover your ears and get through

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Julia Hürner)

"Krone" Salzburg editor-in-chief Claus Pándi comments on the opening of the Salzburg Festival.

The photo below shows a scene from "Sternstunden der Menschheit".

A scene from Stefan Zweig's "Sternstunden der Menschheit".

(Bild: BARBARA GINDL)

Stefan Zweig's book of the century can be experienced as a play at this year's Salzburg Festival. The moment that can be seen on stage: the cannon thunders - and the observers cover their ears. This image came to mind during the Federal President's speech at the opening of the Salzburg Festival. Alexander Van der Bellen opted - once again - for light, discreetly ignorant summer fare. As if the thunder of the cannon could not be heard from near or far.

The first man in the state is good at telling jokes. About the grant of the Viennese, about Mozart, lederhosen and sugared mountains. Alexander Van der Bellen is a master of jokes. And why not? We all like to talk below our level from time to time.

His speech not worth mentioning? That would be going too far. The opening of the festival is an act of state. And so, towards the end, the Federal President opened up the double bottom of irony and deeper, evil meaning and quoted the Austrian national poet Franz Grillparzer with the sentence familiar to all schoolchildren: "It is a good country."

Intentionally or mistakenly, this echoes the triad of Grillparzer, a court official who was preoccupied with political clarity throughout his life: "From humanity through nationality to bestiality."

So now, until the big elections in September, the motto is: stay under cover when the cannon thunders and cover your ears tightly.

 In sharp contrast to the cheerful gentleman from the Vienna Hofburg, the Governor. Wilfried Haslauer understands the rhetoric of the crisis. He knows how to preserve the dignity of the ceremony. A little remote perhaps, appropriate to the large format. Someone stands and speaks who thinks. About the state of the world, the state of the country, the state of each individual.

Haslauer talks about the demons within us and around us.

Wilfried Haslauer talks about the intolerance and baseness that poisons our present.

He talks about the loss of the joy of success.

Haslauer talks about angels in a higher sense and in real experience.

Haslauer talks about human brokenness.

And he talks about the fact that we have a choice much more often than we think.

Can you hear any self-doubt or self-criticism in Wilfried Haslauer? That's a good thing. Political decisions, especially when it comes to power and maintaining power, are not always pure.

Haslauer's speech was a first-class speech. It is worth talking about.

Yes, we also like to amuse ourselves at a higher level.

In everyday political and media life, we are often unavoidably too quick and too hard on ourselves.

The Salzburg Festival is an opportunity to practise the art of praise. This is what we do here.

Everyday life comes sooner than we might like. After the Festival at the latest, the thunder of the cannon will be impossible to ignore. And you can't cover your ears forever. Otherwise you won't have your hands free.