In two categories

“Renaturation” is word of the year in Austria

Herbert Kickl probably finds the political results of the last few months more pleasing than the current "election success".

(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

The politically charged term "renaturation" has been named Austrian Word of the Year 2024. But other categories were also dominated by the political debate. FPÖ leader and "People's Chancellor" Herbert Kickl came out on top in two categories.

This was announced by the Society for Austrian German (GSÖD) in Graz. In what is now the 25th election, "renaturalization" was able to secure 24 percent of the votes. The jury emphasized that this measure, which refers to the restoration of land and water bodies, especially those used for agricultural or industrial purposes, to a near-natural state, is "a politically charged word".

This became apparent after Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) "made a decisive contribution to the adoption of the EU renaturation law. This led to criminal charges being brought by the coalition partner and the allegation of a breach of the constitution. However, the ÖVP charges were dropped by the WKStA."

"Swiftie" and "ChatGPT" on the podium
The other podium places went to the AI program "ChatGPT" (18%), closely followed by "Swiftie" (16%), the fan name for fans of US singer Taylor Swift, whose concerts in Vienna this year had to be cancelled due to a terror alert.

"People's Chancellor" Unword of the Year
"People's Chancellor" (34 percent) won the Unword of the Year award, Herbert Kickl's (FPÖ) self-description in the event that he becomes the next Federal Chancellor. "In the 1941 dictionary, 'Volkskanzler' means 'People's Chancellor': 'Term for Hitler to express the bond between the people and the Führer'," the jury said.

It became the bad word of the year "due to the recourse to Nazi terminology that was thought to have been forgotten, which virtually stylizes Kickl as the (new) Führer and the Austrian population as his people." This was followed by "Talahon" (27%), which comes from Arabic, "due to its aggressive and misogynistic usage" and "remigration" (13%).

With 17 percent of the votes, "heast" was named Youth Word of the Year, followed by "cooked", which is mainly used for hopeless situations ("Ich bin "cooked": ich bin erledigt) and "Aura".

"Lugner is immörtal" saying of the year
The saying of the year was "Lugner ist immörtal" (29 percent), a "play on words in homage to the well-known master builder Richard Lugner, who passed away this year", according to the jury, which chose the "two-row saying as saying of the year due to its special linguistic quality". This refers both to Lugner's nickname "Mörtel" and to the English word "immortal" (German: unsterblich).

FPÖ leader created the slogan of the year
The slogan of the year is "Your will be done". The "modified quote from the Lord's Prayer, which Herbert Kickl (FPÖ) used in the election campaign and thus created a kind of religious aura for himself (under protest from the Catholic Church)" received 47% of the vote.

The election was conducted by the Society for Austrian German in Graz with the support of the Austria Press Agency. 10,434 voters (area code 2734, ballot 7700) took part. 1229 proposals were submitted for the individual categories of the election.