Political scandal: 400 gnomes disappeared in Austria!

[Syt]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/08/26/400-gnomes-disappeared-in-austria-and-its-causing-a-political-scandal/

400 gnomes disappeared in Austria, and it's causing a political scandal

Last weekend in the mountainous Austrian state of Vorarlberg, 400 gnomes disappeared. Nobody knows where they have gone. But everyone knows it's down to politics.

With regional elections set for Sept. 21, the left-wing Social Democratic Party ordered 20,000 gnomes called "Coolmen" earlier this year. The gnomes, toting sunglasses and campaign signs, were the party's last-ditch effort to prevent an electoral defeat in Vorarlberg. About 400 of the gnomes were attached to lampposts on Saturday as alternatives to traditional posters, but their mass disappearance by Sunday morning was conspicuous.

"I suspect our rival party OeVP [the Austrian People's Party] to have removed the gnomes," local Social Democratic Party leader Michael Ritsch told The Washington Post on Tuesday. Ritsch has filed a complaint, and the state's police forces have launched an investigation.

Speaking to Austrian public broadcaster ORF, the local leadership of the OeVP party denied the allegations. The party's local general manager told ORF that people who leveled such unfounded accusations were no better than the actual gnome thieves.

But Ritsch persists with his accusations. "All of our gnomes are 40 centimeters tall. The thieves must have needed more than just one truck to steal them," he said. And he points out another interesting detail: Soon after the gnomes were removed, he said, posters advertising the OeVP party were put up in the same spots.

The gnomes were intended as gifts to local voters, but police have told Ritsch that their suspected theft en masse could constitute a criminal offense. Electoral advertisement campaigns are largely taxpayer-funded in Austria, which means that the gnomes were publicly financed, making their theft a sensitive political issue. According to the Social Democratic Party, it spent roughly a third of its campaign resources in the state, $660,000 in total, on the gnomes.

Their use — instead of posters — offers some interesting insights into the Austrian political landscape. While American candidates would preferably show their own faces in video spots, the Social Democrats relied on their small mascots, as you can see in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-cNDjJ2QlY

Austrian political commentator Thomas Hofer, who studied election campaign management in Washington, is skeptical about the success of using gnomes. "Knowing that their party was about to lose the campaign, they tried to be perceived as humorous by comparing themselves with little gnomes. However, the symbolic reference causes the opposite reactions it is supposed to," he said.

Hofer indirectly blames the United States for the emergence of such election campaigns. "More than other European countries, Austria has always tried to copy American campaigns," he said. Having much less public funding for their party's campaign in the region, the Social Democrats were doomed to lose the advertisement fight, which is waged mostly through posters hung up on walls and lampposts. Television does not play a major role in the country's election campaigns because public TV channels (which dominate the market) are not allowed to broadcast political advertisement. Gnomes seemed like a welcome alternative for the Social Democrats, a party that is among the strongest political forces in Austria but has been historically weak in Vorarlberg and the west of the country.

"Gnomes are quite important in the region. You usually marry, you buy a house, and you buy a gnome," Vienna-based political scientist Hubert Sickinger told The Post. But Sickinger also doubts their efficacy in election campaigns.

German gnome expert and manufacturer Andreas Klein, however, thinks that gnomes "make it much easier to break the ice or to get the attention of voters."

Voter turnout in Austria largely decreased after the 1970s, prompting parties to invest resources in finding uncommon means to reach out to the electorate. Countries across Europe are experiencing similar trends of voter disillusionment, with commentators pointing to a widening gap between citizens and political elites.

Ritsch said that, no matter the outcome of the election, he has attained his goal of awakening voter interest in local issues. "Recently people have started to come up to me more frequently again. Then, we talk about gnomes and politics," he said.

The Coolmen have also drawn some complaints from chocolate maker Milka who used to have an iconic TV spot with an octogenarian in the Alps, his catch phrase being, "It's cool, man!" (He was sometimes referred to as Coolman.

[alfred russel]

There will be much gnashing of teeth over this.

[Syt]

[Syt]

Even the BBC covers this horrifying tale:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28923234

Austrian party rues disappearance of 400 garden gnomes

Four hundred garden gnomes have gone missing in Vorarlberg in west Austria.

The gnomes, known as "Coolmen", are the property of the left wing Social Democrat Party.

They were being used as political campaign advertisements in the run up to provincial elections in Vorarlberg on 21 September.

Reinhold Einwallner from the Social Democrats told the BBC there were suspicions that the gnomes may have been removed by rival party the OeVP.

Mr Einwallner said the 400 gnomes in question had been attached to lamp-posts in around the towns of Rankweil and Bregenz. But on Saturday night, they disappeared.

"An interesting detail is that now OeVP [the conservative People's Party] campaign posters are now hanging at the same height on many of these lampposts," he said.

Mr Einwallner said the Social Democrats were happy if individual members of the public wanted to take a Coolman gnome for their gardens but he said the party could not just stand by when campaign materials worth 3,000 euros ($3,958; £2,391) simply disappeared.

It would be "a major scandal" if the gnomes had been stolen by another political party, he said in a statement.

The Social Democrats have filed an official complaint with the police.

A reward of 1,000 euros has been offered to anyone with information about the gnomes' whereabouts.

In using gnomes for its election campaign, the Social Democrats are breaking with long established custom in Austria. Traditionally posters are used.

The Social Democrats have ordered 20,000 gnomes, which they plan to roll out over the next few weeks of campaigning.


Gnome facts

-    The idea of including small stone figures in the garden is an ancient one - Priapus, the ancient phallic god of fertility inhabited many a Roman garden
-    During the Renaissance period, gardens of wealthy villas sported groups of stone "grotesques" including Punch-style figures typically a metre tall and garishly painted
-    In Germany the history of these garden figures has become inextricably confused with the tradition of "little folk" or dwarves who were believed to help in the mines and around the farm
-    As the first proud Germanic dwarves arrived in England they were promptly re-named as the more humble "gnome"
-    The manufacturing heartland of the early gnome or dwarf centred on the town of Graefenroda in Germany
-    With the outbreak of World War I the reputation of the Germanic gnome plummeted. It was left to Disney to revive the fashion with their hit animation film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Source: Garden historian Twigs Way

In other news: Michael Spindelegger, vice chancellor, finance minister and chairman of the conservative ÖVP has stepped down from all offices after massive criticism inside his party over his support for a tax reform that might reduce the burden for Austrian income tax payers.

[The Brain]

Worst Austrian ever.

[derspiess]

Wow, first there were Nazi gnomes and now Social Democrat gnomes.  I prefer my gnomes apolitical, thank you.

[KRonn]

A reward of 1,000 euros has been offered to anyone with information about the gnomes' whereabouts. 

Check World of Warcraft. They may have chosen to go and help repopulate the gnomish homeland!

[Norgy]

Does Austria now have a: gnome deficit? 

[KRonn]

gnomercy for gnomes in Austria?

[Malthus]

Wow, first there were Nazi gnomes and now Social Democrat gnomes.  I prefer my gnomes apolitical, thank you.

Hell, the gnomes aren't actually doing the voting. What do you think this is, Detroit?

[Norgy]

#justiceforthegnomes

[Syt]

#gnomebucketchallenge

[mongers]

Some of the terminology used in the article is a bit baffling, have I been confused by the gnomenclature ?

[Malthus]

Some of the terminology used in the article is a bit baffling, have I been confused by the gnomenclature ?

Just say you have to have that gnomic article explained.   

[mongers]

Some of the terminology used in the article is a bit baffling, have I been confused by the gnomenclature ?

Just say you have to have that gnomic article explained.

You should try working the phrase "gnomes of Zurich" into topic; there a joke in there somewhere, I know you could unlock it.