Blue yes to gender

FPÖ government grandees suddenly understand women

This is how our cartoonist Milan A. Ilic imagines Manfred Haimbuchner (left) and Günter Steinkellner as ladies' men in dirndls.

(Bild: Milan A. Ilic)

Gender-neutral language is woke devil's stuff and should be banned. This has always been the unchanging party line of the Freedom Party. In Upper Austria, however, this blue guiding principle now seems to be crumbling. Why else would the FPÖ agree to the new, counter-gendered state rules of procedure?

Lower Austrian FPÖ politician Udo Landbauer is not happy with his title of "Deputy Governor": although head of government Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) is undisputedly a woman, Landbauer refers to himself as "Deputy Governor" on social media. He is generally suspicious of feminine attributes in language: "We are putting a stop to the gender craze," he rejoiced when Black-Blue in Lower Austria made gender-inclusive language in the state administration a punishable offense in 2023. "The gender star, Binnen-I and co. are absurd," Landbauer said.

"Children" instead of "sons" of God
In the FPÖ, this is virtually an irrefutable party line. As early as 2008, the current Deputy Governor of Upper Austria, FPÖ leader Manfred Haimbuchner, described "gender mainstreaming" in parliament as the "enemy of society". When the Diocese of Linz published a "Family Bible" for reading with children in 2017, he was "shocked" that "sons of God" had now become "children of God" and that the word "man" was used instead of "man".

There is now officially also a deputy LH
With so much defensiveness against the feminization of the German language, it is surprising what the FPÖ members Haimbuchner and Günther Steinkellner have decided this week in the government: the new rules of procedure of the Upper Austrian state government - because they have been amended with regard to gender-equitable language of all things. For example, it now recognizes that there is also a "deputy governor" and that "the deputy" (instead of the representative) of members of the government is entitled to the vote of the person represented in addition to (instead of his/her) own vote when resolutions are passed.

From the good old days
Are the FPÖ members of government in Upper Austria now becoming women's advocates, as our cartoon suggests? Does yesterday's International Women's Day have anything to do with it? After all, the old regulation dates back to a time when all was still right with the world for masculine language purists: May 9, 1977 - a good year before Haimbuchner was born. C. Ortner