"Exactly my type"

Star author praises Vienna’s mayor as a dustman

Four years after the "Krone" campaign for the Vienna elections, the pictures of Michael Ludwig in orange are going around the world. Because there is praise from a world-famous writer.

This had never been seen before the "Krone" campaign: the incumbent mayor of a city of millions slips into a dustman's uniform and cleans up other people's mess. How did Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) end up doing just that in September 2020? The "Krone" gave all the top candidates in the Vienna elections a day in the jobs they dreamed of as children.

"I was very happy to wear the orange of MA 48. Because I am proud to be the mayor of a city where municipal waste disposal runs so smoothly. Like many employees in the City of Vienna team, the 48ers make a very important contribution to public services, climate protection and thus to the quality of life in our city," says the Mayor today. "It is important to me to show solidarity because I know how important these services are. That's why I took on a whole shift."

"A big compliment to him"
Why this is now an issue again. The American bestselling author T. C. Boyle ("The Tortilla Curtain"), who also has a huge fan base in Austria, came across Ludwig's bin man photo by chance on Twitter and posted: "He's exactly my type. A big compliment to him."
Ludwig is delighted with the recognition: "I really appreciate him. He is one of the great writers of our time, who deals intensively with the current challenges of our time in his novels."