“I’ve been having these tremors”

Former mayor Häupl: “I suffer from Parkinson’s disease”

Michael Häupl: “I’m not afraid. I’ve developed a certain resilience.”(Bild: Trend Wolfgang Wolak / Verlagsgruppe News / picturedesk.com)

It’s a shocking diagnosis that immediately brings to mind Alois Mock or Michael J. Fox. Now Vienna’s former mayor, Michael Häupl, has also received the news from doctors.

“I’m fine,” says the former city leader (SPÖ) in an interview with the “Krone.” “I can eat, I can write, I just have this tremor.” His wife, a doctor, noticed it at home. His hands wouldn’t stay still like they used to. Her advice: “Go see a neurologist!”

And the 75-year-old went for an examination. But Häupl wouldn’t be Häupl if he didn’t take this stroke of fate with humor: “The doctor said to me: ‘I have one piece of bad news and two pieces of good news. The bad news: You have Parkinson’s! The first piece of good news: You won’t die from it. The second piece of good news: You won’t go senile.’”

“At first, it’s definitely a shock”
But the now 75-year-old admits: “At first, it’s quite a shock. Of course, I know it’s incurable.” And he continues: “I also know what the end result will be. We saw that with Mock. He was in a wheelchair.”

My quality of life isn’t so limited that I can’t drink a white spritzer anymore.

Michael Häupl

Mild Course 
But Häupl doesn’t want to think about such images, because his course of the disease is “fortunately a mild one.” He’s also able to do without medication at the moment. His current therapy: exercise! Or as he puts it: “Relatively—yes, relatively disciplined exercise.”

Therapy started
One hour on the ergometer twice a week, physical therapy once a week. And exercises with the hard-shell ball, which loosens up the muscles. Häupl with a smile: “The ball shakes. So it’s not me shaking with the ball, but the ball shaking with my hand.” As for his outlook on the future, the former mayor remains calm: “I’m not afraid. I’ve already developed a certain resilience. The cancer diagnosis was much worse.”

Already defeated cancer
His health situation only became truly serious in 2020. In an interview with the “Krone” at the time, Häupl said: “I had an early-stage form of kidney cancer and underwent surgery that went extremely well, but then complications arose afterward. Things like an abscess and sepsis. The odds of all that happening are only one percent, but I was screaming ‘Here!’ everywhere. That was an extreme challenge for the doctors, including my wife, and for me as well. Twelve weeks in the hospital is pretty intense.”

Wants to keep working
Following his Parkinson’s diagnosis, Häupl will retain all his roles, such as that of president of Volkshilfe Wien. And Häupl won’t have to give up his trademark white spritzer either: “My quality of life isn’t so limited that I can’t have one anymore.”