(she / her)

Or, the post where I tell you about the peculiar, surprising, positive article I caught a glimpse of in today's stream of news and trivia.

Graz is the second largest city in Austria with some 300 000 residents, or 652 000 within its larger urban zone. Since 2021 it has been governed by a left coalition of communists, greens and social democrats and the mayor's chair has been held by the communist Elke Kahr. She has served on the city's council and as vice mayor prior, but this represents the first time a woman and communist has won the mayor's post in Graz.

Per the HS's article's expression, "This is the core of modern Austro-communism: Open doors to the mayor's office. People of all ages and walks coming to see and ask for help." Facing the constituents and hearing their requests. Direct contact, which also informs new policies based on the hardships they face.

Elke Kahr's past experiences in service of Graz were serving as councillor for housing and later transportation. As the mayor she deals with same issues with experience, advice to navigate the public services and as last, direct resort: money, straight to the petitioner from KPÖ's social fund.

"KPÖ councillors are required to earn the average industrial wage and donate the rest to social programmes in accordance with the basic rules of the KPÖ.", both the wikipedia and HS article relay. Elke Kahr's 8300€/mo wage as mayor sees her hold onto some 2000 of it, and the rest goes to serve the locals through the party's fund.

The fund is a last resort, direct aid of minimal threshold meant to catch and help those who have fallen through other Austrian national social services and networks.

Bills of all sorts, medical, rent, debt are paid from the fund. HS article mentions one such case as example, such as a 20-year-old medical student who defaulted on a TV license payment by mistake. He paid the bill and interest out of his own funds and the remainder he had was not enough to cover utilities or cost of living. The mayor paid him some couple hundred euros to get through the month.

Other petitioners who didn't need money, but had other concerns, such as a pair of brick-and-mortar retailers' who seek overturning a ban of their light sign advert, or a pensioner hairdresser who had lived in her friend's garden cottage after her marriage ended and the ex-husband kicked her out. She is promised a cheap 35 square-meter apartment. The KPÖ's agenda since winning the Graz elections has been making more affordable housing available, both through requiring new construction and acquiring existing ones to let out. The party overall has campaigned for rent controls and blocking privatization of existing public housing stock in the past decades.

A new era for the party that had organized resistance against the Anschluss and Nazi Germany, clashed with Stalin and the CPSU but later conspired to enact takeovers similar as in Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, condemned Prague Spring's violent extinguishing but later endorsed it, clashed with Germany over the fate of Novum, former East German shell company that had funded the KPÖ generously and languished in a cross-stream of lost ideological foundation.

Now after the victory in Graz, the KPÖ and Young Greens coalition has made an entrance to the Salzburg Landtag with a 11% share of votes, coming to four seats. Solving housing issues was the spearhead of their campaign, compared to the other side of the political aisle where People's Party (ÖVP) and Freedom Party (FPÖ) campaigned on anti-islamism and anti-immigration.

Myself, I was pleased to read about this good work done in the name of a cause I loosely associate with. Kahr and others HS interviewed of course did mention that revolution and communism were their desires but it was secondary to serving the people now with the means they had and could gain. Kahr herself espoused an euro-communist stance of working through the elections and existing democratic processes.

A heartening example, but only as good as the people involved. I wish them good fortune and success and honest, earnest public servants that keep the people close, and avoid the pitfall of dogmatic purity.

The article that prompted this post
https://www.hs.fi/ulkomaat/art-2000009602369.html
The zerobinned text in Finnish
https://zerobin.org/?534f1022aae09d1f#7Atrp7Je5QnYGTQdJS6NEUxoavnzDvtYDQ6FukRJpm2B

Wikipedia, background on the people and party featured in the article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elke_Kahr
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Austria