Concerning Salzburg

Rabl-Stadler

"Salzburg-Krone" editor-in-chief Claus Pándi comments on former Festival Theatre President Helga Rabl-Stadler's criticism of FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl.

You can rely on Helga Rabl-Stadler. She weathered all the storms during the pandemic and kept the doors to the Festival open, and it is Helga Rabl-Stadler who is now finding the right words to say to Herbert Kickl.

While most of her old party friends are notoriously shrewd in their role as submissive participants in power in every situation, no matter how unsavory, and are no longer even ashamed of their talk of "state political responsibility", it was entirely up to Helga Rabl-Stadler to warn against an "art chancellor Kickl as a threat to our country". Kickl fights against the freedom of art and is a despiser of art and culture, says Rabl-Stadler. She remembers well how badly Kickl insulted the Salzburg Festival and described its guests as an inbred club. Helga Rabl-Stadler had the "Kurier" newspaper, which has close ties to the ÖVP and Raiffeisen, say: "We need to save the reputation of our territorially small Austria as a major cultural power."

(Bild: Andreas Tröster)

It is no surprise that Kickl is reaching out for art. Trump is also reaching for the Kennedy Center, Washington's largest cultural center. Why? Because there are still critical people in the arts. Even a chancellor and a president with overpowering power fantasies are afraid of such people - despite all the differences in size. Now art and culture need strong people to protect them. Helga Rabl-Stadler is such a person.