Viennese SPÖ Can Imagine "Culture Euro" for Tourists

In the autumn, a leap of Vienna's Culture Councillor Veronica Kaup-Hasler into the government did not seem unlikely. As part of the SP negotiation team for art and culture, she was able to anchor important topics for her at the federal level. But things turned out differently. In the Vienna election campaign, she now points to her successes achieved since 2018 and aims to continue her term. Someone completely inexperienced in cultural politics became the Minister of Culture: Party leader Andreas Babler.

No Resentment Against Culture Minister Babler After Being Passed Over for Government Formation

"I support Andreas Babler wherever I can," emphasizes the "convinced local politician" Kaup-Hasler, who switched to politics as an experienced dramaturge and festival director and is "with great joy on the SPÖ ticket in this city government" despite still lacking party membership. She had intensive discussions with Babler during the election campaign and since the government formation. "Of course, it is absolutely advantageous to bring expertise - but in politics, you repeatedly receive departments and topics in which you have no experience. What is important is: How open is the person? How well can they listen? How quickly can they understand? That's how I got to know Andreas Babler."

Her most important advice to the new Minister of Culture was therefore to show presence in the scene. "I am in very good exchange with him. My door is always open for him." The fact that the SPÖ is now responsible for cultural policy both at the federal level and in the city is certainly not a disadvantage for those institutions where they are joint funders - although Kaup-Hasler emphasizes in the APA interview that she also agreed on many topics with the State Secretary Andrea Mayer, appointed by the Greens - from gender equality, diversity, and fair pay to low-threshold access and sustainability.

Focus on Vienna's Cultural Offer

For the Vienna election on April 27, the SPÖ is now campaigning with "It's about Vienna". Kaup-Hasler fills this contentless statement in personal promotional handouts with four points: "Center for Children's Culture and Children's Literature House; Young Theater Vienna: Stage for New Voices and Perspectives; Vienna as the Capital of Digital Humanism; More Spaces for Art, Encounter, and Cultural Exchange". A new brochure proudly refers to eight "cultural anchor centers" that are to function as "decentralized cultural local suppliers" in the districts and neighborhoods, from the Atelierhof Schlingermarkt in Floridsdorf to "Bears in the Park" in Simmering. The cultural interim use of the Semmelweis Clinic could also be extended until the end of 2026.

Is that enough to keep up with the rapid population growth of the city in terms of cultural offerings? "No, that is not enough, but many things are in the making. We are doing one thing after another. In the Vienna Urban Development Plan 2035, culture is again and very concretely a topic. And with the Culture Strategy 2030, we have defined fields of action on which we are now continuing to work." Recently, interest groups for art and culture unanimously criticized that there is no time and financial plan for the implementation of the culture strategy and that they are not sufficiently involved. Kaup-Hasler rejects this. "Politics is in dialogue with the different scenes and artists and the interest groups! This is a very large landscape with which we communicate daily." As examples, she recalls a round table with the performance and dance scene and a cultural mediation workshop.

The Nordwestbahnhof area, which was intensively used culturally as a city wasteland with the Climate Biennale and the co-production house brut, could become a cultural desert again after the construction of residential neighborhoods, residents fear, and brut cannot move to St. Marx as planned but needs another interim solution from autumn 2026. "Various factors played a role here: monument protection, pandemic, new requirements for multifunctional uses, and increased ecological standards. The city's investment here for the free scene is enormous, and by autumn 2027 we should have achieved it. Then we will open a jewel there." However, it may be necessary to arrange with a major construction site in the immediate vicinity right after the opening, as the German company CTS Eventim is to build an event hall there by 2030, for which the city of Vienna is providing around 215 million euros.

More Musicals in Vienna Not a "Cultural Policy Necessity"

The major project is not part of the cultural department, and even with the redesign of a green space at the Old Danube announced as "Bank Austria Park", where UniCredit Bank Austria, which is currently withdrawing from financing the Kunstforum, takes over the fee of designer André Heller, or with the musical theater planned by ATG Entertainment in the Prater, with which the VBW belonging to Wien Holding and the city of Vienna have announced a "partnership", Kaup-Hasler is only on the sidelines.

Open criticism of it is not to be obtained from her. "More communication would be desirable," she admits, and also reveals that she "would not consider the expansion of the musical offerings as a cultural-political necessity." But there are other aspects: "It is a project of the creative economy, which recognizes the great potential of Vienna as a location: Vienna is internationally regarded as a hotspot - also for economic enterprises, and this is also of crucial importance for culture and its growth."

Culture attracts to Vienna: Tourist tax worth considering for Kaup-Hasler

"We have a tourism boom of a special class," states Kaup-Hasler, culture is the main reason for travel that draws people from all over the world to Vienna. Therefore, she can appreciate the considerations of allowing culture to directly benefit from the increased number of overnight stays in the form of a dedicated tax: "I think the introduction of a cultural euro is absolutely worth considering."

The city councilor, also responsible for science, warns in conversation about developments elsewhere, about cultural-political clear-cuts in Slovakia or Hungary, about the current debates in Styria, and the dismantling of an open and diverse society in the USA, which has also led to a beginning exodus in science. Wouldn't this be an opportunity to establish a new welcoming culture in Vienna, where after the war, they failed to actively bring back emigrants? "Now would indeed be the right moment for that. I very much hope for a joint approach at all levels - from the EU downwards."

Otto Wagner Area to Develop Attraction

The Otto Wagner area, where the Music and Arts Private University of the City of Vienna (MUK) is to relocate in 2030/31, where the future location of the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance is currently being renovated, and an atelier house for fine arts is being created, "could become a nucleus and develop attraction for others."

Also from Berlin, where the radical austerity measures are massively affecting the cultural scene, an increased influx of artists can be observed, says Kaup-Hasler. "Many now want to come to Vienna. This increases the pressure in the scene." But in Vienna, where the cultural budget has been massively expanded in recent years, savings will likely have to be made in the future as well. More ideas with less money seems to be the future motto. "I will continue to advocate for my areas. It is always important to manage taxpayers' money carefully. I have endless ideas! We must be resourceful and create synergies."

Still no cultural funding law planned for Vienna

Vienna is the only federal state without its own art and cultural funding law. This has been criticized recently, but it will remain so. She has discussed this extensively with her experts and concluded: "There is no need for a cultural funding law," the politician is sure. "What is formulated in the cultural funding laws in the federal states, these structures have long been lived in Vienna. No taxpayer money needs to be spent on lip service of this kind. We have excellent cooperation between politics and cultural administration in Vienna. I wouldn't know what added value that would bring. It brings nothing but empty phrases."

(The conversation was conducted by Wolfgang Huber-Lang/APA)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.