"Schneider's glasses"

Test alarm

Robert Schneider will go for another walk in the woods on election Sunday - and leave his cell phone at home as a precaution.(Bild: Eva Maria Huber)

Last week, a test alert was held throughout Austria, and this Sunday Vorarlberg is electing a new state parliament. "Krone" columnist Robert Schneider has drawn his own personal conclusions from these two events.

On Saturday or Sunday, I always go for my little walk in the woods, at lunchtime, because no one is in the woods and everyone is having lunch, as they should be. If I leave an hour later, I'm no longer alone, because everyone is full and goes for a walk in the woods. If I leave an hour earlier, nobody is full yet, so I quickly go for a little walk in the forest. I only have a very narrow time window.

So I was strolling along alone last Saturday when suddenly my cell phone started ringing in shrill dissonance. At first I thought that my youngest had fiddled with it again and changed the ringtone. I searched for it in my ten jacket pockets and when I finally found it, the sound was gone. Then I remembered: It's civil defense day. AT Alert to all cell phones in this nation. User data is not read in because it has already been read in anyway. Don't worry, they know you anyway. Especially you. Fifteen minutes later, the alert went off again. For three minutes it just wouldn't go away. Three minutes that seemed like half an hour in this silence.

There are elections in Vorarlberg this Sunday. I go for my little walk again. This time without my cell phone. I am prepared. Also for the evening, when the first projections come in. I'll put it under ten pillows as a precaution. Because it could be that a political disaster is declared in Vorarlberg. I don't have to put up with three minutes of dissonant alerts, i.e. catcalls about the lost election. I read on the AT Alert page that the alert can be triggered in the event of the following incidents, among others: serious danger, extreme danger, missing persons, risk of explosion...

Anything is possible on election night. My cell phone stays under the ten pillows until Monday morning.