Andreas Kirchner: Inquiry with Franz Vranitzky

Franz Vranitzky in an interview with Andreas Kirchner

„UNITY IS NOT ACHIEVED BY DEMANDING IT, BUT BY CREATING IT“

The journalist, interviewer and presenter Andreas Kirchner visited our founding and honorary president Dr Franz Vranitzky for an interview as part of his "NACHGEFRAGT" series at the Kreisky Forum.

"I didn't really want to talk to him about the SPÖ, others have already done that enough. It was supposed to be a conversation about handshake quality and respect. Two qualities that seem to be assigned rather marginal importance in current political events. We ended up talking about the SPÖ after all," says Kirchner. And further:

"As a result of the Waldheim scandal, Franz Vranitzky, as Federal Chancellor, took on representative duties abroad that would otherwise have fallen to the Federal President, led Austria into the European Union after long negotiations and acknowledged Austria's complicity in the Second World War and its consequences in a speech to the National Council on 8 July 1991. With his political actions, the Social Democratic head of government became the social trendsetter of the Republic. Respect - also or above all - for his political counterpart was always important to him. He laments the loss of this in current politics. He published his thoughts on this together with journalist Peter Pelinka in 2017 in the book „Zurück zum Respekt. Survival in a chaotic world“.

In this chaotic world, these times characterised by demagogues such as Donald Trump, the regulations to contain the coronavirus, which many people can no longer understand, or the dwindling respect for political discourse, I sat down for a chat with the 82-year-old elder statesman. I did so on the 30th anniversary of Bruno Kreisky's death in his former villa, which is now a platform for international dialogue as the Bruno Kreisky Forum. "