Austria’s popular beer party is standing for election

Party leader, doctor and rock musician Dominic Wlazny says the party is motivated by the fact that they have received a lot of support, even though they have not achieved the goal of increasing the number of members from 1,300 to 20,000.

– We have still met more than half of our fundraising goal. The glass is, so to speak, half full, and more is constantly being poured away, says Wlazny.

The Beer Party is a left-wing but satirical party, and received only 0.1 percent of the vote in the last parliamentary election in 2019. However, when Wlazny ran for president in 2022, he became the third most popular candidate with 8.3 percent of the vote, and the opinion polls shows that the party is now between 5 and 7 percent. The blocking limit in Austria is, like in Norway, 4 percent.

Among other parties, it is feared that the Beer Party will steal voters on the left at a time when the far-right party FPÖ is set to become the largest. The parliamentary elections will probably be held in September.

The Beer Party has previously supported a good mix of serious and frivolous matters. They want better healthcare, but have also proposed beer fountains in Vienna and been highly critical of the fruity but beer-based Radler. Ahead of this year’s election, however, the party is trying to appear more serious.