Kay-Michael Dankl creates a KPÖ sensation in conservative Salzburg

2023-04-23 16:59:00

The thoughtful 34-year-old with a radio voice has been proving for four years as a municipal councilor in the state capital that he credibly advocates social issues and affordable housing. Like his counterpart at the other end of the Salzburg party spectrum, FPÖ leader Marlene Svazekthe neo-member of the state parliament was already considered a political talent at a young age.

A first statement by Kay-Michael Dankl after the projections:

school days in the USA

The son of a pediatrician and a carpenter became interested in politics at an early age. As a student, Dankl lived with his family in the USA for three and a half years. “There I saw where it leads when big companies with profit interests control everything – in health, in housing, in education,” he says. After graduating from high school and returning to Salzburg, he began studying history in 2005 – not yet 17 years old at the time – and became politically active. First with the Greens and alternative students in the ÖH, later with initiatives such as the “Platform against the Right” or “Solidarisches Salzburg”.

From the Greens to the Communists

Dankl was federal spokesman for the Young Greens from 2015 to 2017 – until the youth organization was expelled by the parent party in March 2017. Dankl docked with the left-wing “Platform Independent & Solidarity”, which later formed an electoral alliance with the KPÖ Salzburg as the addition “Plus”. “The Greens were no longer the place where I wanted to do voluntary work and put my heart and soul into it,” he says. Among the Communists, Dankl and a younger team brought a breath of fresh air to a party that had fallen asleep and had become irrelevant in elections.

Focus on poverty, housing and public transport

The KPÖ Plus was still unsuccessful in the 2017 national council election and the 2018 state election. In 2019, it was re-elected to the Salzburg municipal council for the first time since 1967. Dankl sits there as a one-man group – with a clear focus on poverty, housing and the misery of traffic in the state capital, where the bus cycle was better in the 1980s than it is today. A social tariff for the municipal outdoor pools and a deposit fund for rents go back to his initiative. And he consistently campaigns for people in need – for them he has held more than 500 consultation hours in his small office in Mirabell Palace – following the example of the Graz communists, who were used to success.

Accusation of “left-wing populist”

In his considered and unpretentious style of politics, he repeatedly mixes exaggeration, sometimes also with a good dash of polemics. Dankl criticizes “speculators”, “parallel companies of the rich” and “expensive prestige projects” by Governor Wilfried Haslauer. This has earned him the accusation of being a left-wing populist. Dankl rejects that. “We take up topics that are very close to people’s everyday lives. These are often small things that are very important for those affected – for example, whether there is a seat for older people while waiting for the bus, or whether they eat themselves can still afford for their pet.”

Elke Kahr as a political role model

Dankl names Elke Kahr, the KPÖ mayor of Graz, as a political role model. Like her, he also donates part of his politician’s fee. “High salaries only lead to aloof politics.” Every month, a good 400 euros of his municipal council salary of around 1,800 euros net goes into an aid fund. With the money, the party helps with rent arrears, back payments for electricity or if the money for the last grocery purchase of the month is missing. Dankl says that none of his fellow campaigners want to keep more than an average wage for a skilled worker from political activity after the election. “That’s around 2,300 euros net.”

“Putin friends are more likely to be found at the WKO or OMV”

The fact that political opponents still associate the KPÖ with the crimes of communism does not unsettle the self-confessed anti-fascist. “Regardless of whether I call it communism, socialism or the common good: we are concerned with the question of the basic needs of everyday life. Housing, warmth, light, health and public transport must not be left to the market and profit interests. It’s good business for few, but a very bad deal for the people.”

Dankl also clearly condemned the war of aggression against Ukraine and said: “If you’re looking for Putin friends in Austria, you’re more likely to find them in the Chamber of Commerce or at OMV than at the KPÖ.” He refrains from using terms like “class struggle” or “revolution,” but changing the existing system is one of his concerns. “It’s all about questioning existing power relations.” For example, he wants to convert the state energy supplier Salzburg AG into a non-profit company or stop the sale of state real estate.

46 square meter apartment in the district of Lehen

Dankl was born in Graz on October 29, 1988 and grew up in Pinzgau and the city of Salzburg. The historian works part-time as a guide at the Salzburg Museum. In his free time, he plays indoor hockey and archery. He is also known as an avid sandcastle builder. He lives with his girlfriend in a 46 square meter apartment in the less posh Lehen district of Salzburg. In the future, he wants to honor both the state and local councils with his presence.