More appearance than reality

The demystification of Marco Pogo

Founder Dominik Wlazny is the face and content of the party. The doctor and rock musician also wants to take to the parliamentary stage.

(Bild: Screenshot/ORF)

Just a few months ago, polls predicted that the KPÖ and the Beer Party had a chance of entering the National Council. However, the longer the election campaign lasts, the more the ratings of the Beer Party in particular fall. Its leader and actual program, Dominik Wlazny, seems disenchanted.

Rock musician Dominik Wlazny (alias Marco Pogo) and his father, who is also his manager, are extremely cautious in their dealings with the media. Wlazny rejects duels and debates during the election campaign. If you have seen one of his rare appearances on "Im Zentrum" on Sunday evening, you will understand why. In the discussion round of the small parties with the KPÖ, "None of them" (Wandel) and the Madeleine Petrovic list, the founder of the beer party was often completely blank or stuttered in terms of content.

"He didn't present much of a program"
 On the subject of banning religious symbols from schools, sentences like: "We need a subject update, we need a subject future where ethics and civil courage, sustainable living are taught instead of a doctorate in mathematics." Dominik Wlazny "did not present much of a program, he rather tries to score points with his personality, with the way he wants to do politics, and others have a concrete program," analyzed political scientist Kathrin Stainer-Hämmerle after the show.

However, Wlazny's appearance also raised more questions than it answered for political expert Thomas Hofer. "Wlazny didn't want to burn his fingers and therefore shied away from TV debates. But avoiding mistakes is not a strategy. He has to hope that the election date arrives sooner than the four percent hurdle," says the expert. After all, unlike Frank Stronach, Pogo is aware of his weaknesses. "A National Council election has a different depth in terms of content than a presidential election or an election in Vienna," says Hofer.

Wlazny knows how to market himself.

(Bild: Screenshot facebook.com/Bierpartei)

Critics accuse Wlazny and his father that the "beer party" only serves to market their own beer brand, music and other fan articles relating to the band "Turbobier". The whole thing is a kind of family business. So far, Pogo has skillfully used his standing as a musician to bring his politics to the people in addition to songs, T-shirts and beer. His greatest success came in the presidential election in the fall of 2022, in which he received 8.3% of the vote and even came second in Vienna.

"Wlazny is now getting on journalists' nerves"
At the start of the election campaign, almost all polls put the Beer Party firmly in parliament with eight percent. That has since changed. A survey by the Institute for Public Opinion Research and Data Analysis puts the Beer Party at just five percent. IFDD head Christoph Haselmayer does not believe that the party's entry into the National Council is certain. "There could still be a heart-stopping final here in the end." The expert believes that the reason for the beer party's falling ratings is that the movement is no longer being hyped by the media. "Journalists are now getting annoyed that Beer Party leader Dominik Wlazny simply doesn't say anything."

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

However, Wlazny not only leaves voters in the dark about his specific political content, little is also known about himself. Although he was born in Vienna, he grew up in the Pulkautal valley and graduated from high school in Hollabrunn, where he made a name for himself early on in the local "Schlachthof", specifically the "Verein zur Förderung der alternativen Musikszene". The teenage punk rocker's first band at the time was the "Gogets", and he was even less famous as "Niki Plastik" than with his later stage name "Marco Pogo", which he still goes by today.

Business is going well

(Bild: Steiner Clara Milena)

In addition to music, there was also medicine. Wlazny once wanted to work as a reconstructive surgeon, at least that's what he said in an interview, but during his time as a junior doctor he decided on "Turbobier". However, the doctor also looks after his health as a rocker: Wlazny has run two marathons and - according to his own statement - "doesn't drink much beer", but prefers soda and lemonade.