„TELL ME, CHARLY“

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FROM KREISKY'S LIVING ROOM

robert misik in conversation with karl blecha
„TELL ME, CHARLY“

Karl Blecha is now 88 years old, and until recently he was still in the front row of day-to-day politics, most recently as President of the Pensioners' Association. He has been politically active for almost 70 years now, starting with the socialist secondary school pupils, as a young man he was an active supporter of the Algerian freedom movement, photos show him among the independence fighters and guerrillas. Central secretary, deputy party leader of the SPÖ, interior minister - there is hardly a function that he did not hold.

He was a programme thinker and shirt-sleeved doer, a great debater who was also able to lead the organisation with authority. Bruno Kreisky's great era is also inextricably linked with him, as are the darker sides of his career. He resigned in the wake of the Noricum and Lucona scandals and was later even given a suspended prison sentence. And yet he managed to return as a political animal, because stumbling is one thing, getting back on your feet afterwards is another.

In an interview with Robert Misik, „Charly“, as he was always called by everyone, looks back on the experiences of a political life that spanned several eras like few others.

Karl Blecha, Former President of the Austrian Pensioners' Association.
Robert Misik, Author and journalist

Karl Blecha (born 16 April 1933 in Vienna), known as Charly Blecha, is an Austrian politician of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). Blecha was Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Austria from 1983 to 1989, resigning from office in 1989 due to his involvement in the Lucona affair and the Noricum affair. He was President of the Austrian Pensioners' Association from 1999 to 2018.