Heinz-Christian Strache, former head of the right-wing populist FPÖ, is a welcome guest at the fraternity ball.
Just like Martin Sellner, former leader of the right-wing extremist »Identitarian Movement«.
Marine Le Pen from the French Front National has also been a guest of honor there, and even Alexander Dugin, the Russian ultra-right and imperialist ideologue, has been invited.
Once a year, Europe's right-wing extremists come together to dance in Vienna.
Ironically, in the Hofburg, the official residence of the Federal President, the symbolic center of power in Austria.
The ball, which was organized for a long time by the "Vienna Corporation Ring," an association of ethnic-national fraternities, is now being organized by the FPÖ.
Like every parliamentary party, it has the right to rent the rooms in the Hofburg.
The ball-goers remained the same under the auspices of the FPÖ: fraternity members and well-known European right-wing extremists.
In the last two years, the ball has been canceled due to the corona pandemic.
Now it is to take place again – on February 24 of all days, the anniversary of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
While people in Kiev and elsewhere in Europe remember the outbreak of war and commemorate the dead, Europe's right-wing extremists want to dance.
Also danced on Holocaust Remembrance Day
It's not the first time the ball has been held on a preloaded date.
In 2018, the Akademikerball was scheduled for January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The police are already preparing for a massive protest against the event.
In the past, left-wing groups and civil society alliances had called for demonstrations against the so-called Academic Ball.
There were some major clashes with the police.
In this episode of "Inside Austria" we deal with this academic ball.
We explain which fraternities are behind the ball, why it is organized by the FPÖ and how the event has repeatedly made headlines in the past.
We look at the protests against the ball. And we ask why the right-wing extremists are allowed to dance in the Vienna Hofburg of all places.
In the weekly podcast “Inside Austria”, SPIEGEL and STANDARD look together at the big and small scandals in Austria.
Together with journalists from both editorial offices, we reconstruct cases and events that move the country.
We look into political abysses, follow the investigations into the cause of Sebastian Kurz and his ÖVP.
And inform about an important Austrian topic of the week.
