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It’s hard to imagine someone with Marxist leanings holding an influential position in neoliberal European politics. Ever since the fall of the Warsaw Pact and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, to brand yourself as a communist would be a political death sentence throughout most of Europe.
The Alpine nation of Austria is no different in this regard. For leftists, its political terrain is as tumultuous and difficult to traverse as the steep mountains and hills that make up much of the country’s geography. Despite having an expansive welfare state that would make many American politicians’ heads spin, fit with universal healthcare and tuition-free public college, the country of approximately nine million people is roughly 55% Roman Catholic and is arguably one of the more socially and politically moderate countries in all of Europe. The center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, SPÖ) and center-right Austrian People’s Party (Österreichische Volkspartei, ÖVP) have dominated Austrian politics since the end of the Second World War.
Yet, one of Austria’s most influential and popular mayors is an open Marxist.
On September 26th, 2021, the second largest city in Austria, Graz, held municipal elections to determine its city council and mayoral office via a party-line ballot. The Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), which led the mayoral coalition of Graz heading into the election, was favored to defeat the Communist Party of Austria (Kommunistische Partei Österreichs, KPÖ) which up until that time was the second largest political party in the city’s government.
Entering Election Day, the ÖVP was leading all polling, and was expected to win the most votes, giving it the privilege of forming the city’s governing coalition, as it had previously enjoyed in many elections prior.
However, by the time all the ballots were received and counted, the KPÖ had won, obtaining 28.8% of the votes cast.
Shocking many across the country, the continent, and the world, Elke Kahr, a Communist city councilor who is the leader of the KPÖ’s Graz chapter, quickly formed a coalition government with the Greens and Social Democrats. By November 17th, 2021, she had become the first communist mayor of an Austrian city.
A bronze-colored bust of Karl Marx soon found itself as a main piece of decor in the Mayor’s office.
Almost immediately after taking office, Kahr went straight to work implementing policies helping the city’s most vulnerable populations.
Growing up as an orphan who was raised by a family that lived in low-income government housing within the city, one of her main goals is to “redistribute wealth” and “alleviate the problems of the people in our city as much as possible.”
Kahr’s government has done much to address poverty across Graz. They have produced a budget devoid of additional support to real estate speculators; increased the rent deposit fund; capped rents in city-owned housing with the money that would have otherwise been spent financing private constructors to build exorbitant housing; cleaned up the city by instituting a freeze on rates for garbage and sewage collection; protected city trees that contribute to producing clean air; opened public housing to non-EU citizens; and reduced fees for public transportation. Finally, the city government has also unleashed a plan to install a new, extensive tramline by 2025 and to give every child a bicycle to advance their goal of making the city carbon neutral by 2040 in order to follow the standard set by the national government.
And if that wasn’t enough, Kahr gives away €88,000 of her €120,000 mayoral salary — often to retirees, migrants, and individuals with health problems who are struggling to pay different monthly bills. “I’m simply convinced that politicians make too much,” she says.
In an interview with Jacobin, Kahr laid out how her journey to becoming Mayor was one that took nearly four decades of organizing through the Austrian Communist Party to demonstrate commitment to the residents of her city. “You have to be in touch with how others live and work if you are going to be a useful party for people,” she explained.
“I joined the KPÖ in 1983 because I was looking for a political home and community that resembled how I pictured a just and equal society. Over the decades, and in all my various roles — first as a KPÖ employee, then as a city council member, and later as the head of the party in Graz — the one thing I’ve wanted was to serve people. I’ve wanted to do everything I can to make sure that the party works with people to further the causes that are important to their lives.”
Kahr has also attributed some of her success to rejecting the excesses of past communist governments. When pressed about the history of communism and state socialism, she said, “Of course, crimes have been committed in the history of the communist movement as well, and they need to be openly discussed... among the many human lives on Stalin’s consciousness were no small number of great communists.”
However, she emphasized the importance of maintaining the Communist brand, and to not shy away from the political ideology when placed under scrutiny. “Anything else would be false advertising.”
It seems by distancing herself from the usual perceived negative connotations of Marxism, through years of organizing and building relationships with her constituents, as well as developing policies for the struggling citizens of her city, Kahr has found a recipe for electoral and political success.
And now, nearly one year into her term as Mayor, she touts an impressive 65% approval rating among city residents.
Elke Kahr’s example may just illuminate the path that European leftists should follow to win political office, particularly at the local level. In the Mayor’s own words, “We can’t end neoliberalism in one city. But we can do everything to ensure that people aren’t burdened even more.”
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