Lightning action succeeded

Naked in front of parliament as a protest for photovoltaics

Blitz campaign successful, escape plan not. But the message got through . . .

(Bild: Autarkie/Wagner)

"They're going to strip us to the bone": one sentence, one idea - and a well-thought-out plan: an entrepreneur dashed naked in front of parliament and, protected only by a "cardboard dress", presented alternative proposals against the possible abolition of the VAT exemption for PV systems. 

It all began with a discussion between industry colleagues, when the phrase "They'll strip us to our shirts" was uttered. "We looked at each other - and somehow had the same idea," says Maximilian Wagner. The entrepreneur's sentence quickly turned into a concrete idea and plan: "An open letter would have been too lame," says the operator of the photovoltaic company Autarkie in St. Andrä-Wördern (Tulln district) to "Krone".

Action plan: Even an escape bus was on standby
The implementation of the plan to strip bare in front of the parliament then proceeded quite quickly - as the video shows. But although an "escape bus" was ready and the speedster got rid of his winter garb unnoticed at another location, the executive was quicker: "The interrogation in the freezing cold was extremely friendly," Wagner emphasizes.

"The bill would not work out for the state"
With this campaign, we wanted to point out that there would be no savings," says Maximilian Wagner, who runs a PV company in St. Andrä/Wördern in Lower Austria. "In principle, cuts are okay in times like these," says the solar power expert. "But the industry is an extremely well-running economic engine that generates a lot of revenue for the state - from income tax to logistics," the speedster tells the "Krone". And if measures were taken too quickly without due consideration, the industry would collapse - with all the negative consequences: "What we need here is legal certainty."