| The 2020s have been a great decade for Austrian communists so far. In 2021, a communist became mayor of Graz, the country’s second-largest city, and a year later, a sprouting of the communists won 12% in Salzburg’s state election and might now get a mayor too. On Sunday, a communist candidate received 28% of the mayoral vote in Salzburg, beating out all established parties bar the centre-left SPÖ and paving the way for a red-red run-off for mayor on 24 March. The communist, the charismatic Kay-Michael Dankl, may just win it. That feat would put Austria’s second and third-most important cities – though residents of Linz will claim otherwise – in the hands of communists. But, can it be said that the Alpine country is sliding into communist rule? No. The label “communist” has lost its lustre, as the memory of Soviet soldiers raping and pillaging their way across the countryside in 1945 fades. Communist cufflinks are no longer a reason not to vote for a politician, the newfound sentiment in the outskirts of the Alps goes. Gulags and the Holodomor are more the stuff of 17-year-olds’ history classes than contemporary political fears. The new communists have facilitated that perception. Gone are the days of sneering intellectuals who are overly confident in the supremacy of their ideology. Instead, Dankl is a 35-year-old historian turned museum guide who oozes charisma. Unlike his competitors of the big tent parties, he did not feel obliged to offer an answer to all the questions posed by an ever more complex world. Instead, he ran on a single issue: housing. A similar approach had helped a party colleague win Graz. | 