Austria’s Vice Chancellor Andreas Babler (Social Democratic Party, SPÖ) is facing outrage and ridicule after he inadvertently used a notorious Nazi slogan in a speech ahead of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest – which will be held in Vienna.
During a press conference in Vienna’s Museum of Natural History, he said the contest would provide “strength through joy” (Kraft durch Freude).
Verbatim, Babler reportedly said: “United by music – this unifying strength through joy, openness and diversity, this is the wonderful idea of the European Song Contest. It is particularly relevant today, especially when on considers the current geopolitical situation.”
Babler was apparently unaware that Kraft durch Freude (KdF) was the name of the Nazi party’s leisure organisation during the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. KdF organised various leisure activities for Germans between 1933 and 1945 – including exhibitions, concerts, and subsidised holidays.
KdF also initiated the production of an affordable car for the masses, the so-called KdF-Wagen, which later became the Volkswagen Beetle.
The faux pas is especially damning as Babler and his SPÖ are usually the first to accuse right-wingers of using Nazi vocabulary.
The right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) was quick to ridicule Babler. FPÖ General Secretary Christian Hafenecker said: “Babler has once again showcased his meagre intellectual abilities. The nation’s chief moralist has exposed himself. Ironically, it is the Marxist SPÖ leader Babler, whose party wields the ‘Nazi club’ against political rivals at every opportunity and smells right-wing extremism everywhere, who is now himself using a term that referred to a National Socialist mass organisation.”
Hafenecker also wondered ironically when Austria’s Federal President Alexander van der Bellen (a former Greens Party politician) and left-wing NGOs would express their outrage and concern.
Babler, a former small-town mayor and self-declared Marxist, took over the SPÖ in June 2023 after a contentious vote. In September 2024 he led his party to its worst result at a general election in history.
He became Austria’s Vice Chancellor in March 2025 after his SPÖ formed a government coalition with the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the small liberal Neos party – a combination often referred to as the “coalition of the losers”, as it kept the the election winner, the FPÖ, out of power.
In his short reign, Babler has already produced a number of gaffes.
In one recent instance from earlier in April, Babler was accused of using Artificial Intelligence for social media clips to make it seem as if he spoke English much better than he actually does.
Babler’s team claimed that no tools had been used, with the exception of an Adobe tool to reduce echo.
Social media users who wrote about the observation – as well as investigative news site Fass Ohne Boden – later reported they had been pressured by lawyers hired by Babler and the SPÖ to delete their posts and reporting.
Ich habe meinen Tweet, in dem ich behaupte, dass der Medienminister Andreas Babler (SPÖ) künstliche Intelligenz verwendet habe, um in diesem Video "flüssig und verständlich Englisch zu sprechen" in Abstimmung dem Anwalt der SPÖ und Herrn Andreas Babler, firstgerecht gelöscht. pic.twitter.com/KmY1s5ZIbI
— Lukas | 🌐 (@lukasludens) April 20, 2026
In March 2026, Austrian media reported that an adulatory documentary on Babler had been subsidised with more than €500,000 in taxpayers’ money.
