Page - 110 - in Siting Futurity - The “Feel Good” Tactical Radicalism of Contemporary Culture in and around Vienna

110 siting futurity these demonstrations, which began to be organized against the bourgeois attendees of the Opernball with titles such as “eat the rich” and the “Anti-Obern-Ball” — against those above, a play on ‘ober’ [above] and ‘Oper’ [opera]. By the time of the 2000 event, there were over 10,000 protesters clashing with the police and being brutalized and arrested. Had Schlingensief’s Container taken place in the square in front of Vienna’s City Hall or in front of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in the center of the city, it would not have been as over-determined to be demonstrated against as it was on the square in front of the State Opera House. After the attack by the local resistance demonstrators, Schlin- gensief insisted on playing out the rest of the farce and having it made into a documentary as they had planned.14 He was simi- larly recalcitrant in refusing to address the amount of protest his pro-populist position generated: A man shouts at Schlingensief, “You are an enemy to Aus- tria and you have to be deported!” Someone who hates the xenophobic messages breaks in at night and tries to set the containers alight. Another attacks the structures with acid. A protestor is shown being taken away in a police car after defending the rights of foreigners. “Where are the dirty pigs who authorised this?,” he shouts as he is dragged away. An- other woman first attempts to persuade the gathered crowd that “those who already stay here shall remain here, and they shall have equal rights to the Austrians.” But then, […] she 14 Director Paul Poet’s 2002 Ausländer raus! Schlingensiefs Container won several awards at international film festivals and enjoyed a rerelease six years after its premiere, on account of another political crisis in Austrian politics brought on by difficulties between the two coalition partners. In the snap election held on September 28, 2008, just two years after the previous election, both the SPÖ and the ÖVP did terribly, with the worst election results in their history; however, despite the strong gains made by now two anti-immigrant, anti-EU parties, who together won an unprec- edented 28% of the vote and more seats than the ÖVP, and despite Jörg Haider’s death in a car accident less than two weeks after the election, a traditional SPÖ–ÖVP coalition assumed power, and the threat of once again having an extreme right party in the Austrian government abated.