Austria offers free rail travel…if you get a tattoo

Leonora Gewessler, Austria's climate minister, insists there is no problem with the deal. Photo: Florian Gärtner/Photothek

A free train ride for a year is offered to anyone who gets a tattoo promoting the new Austrian rail card with a single ticket.

Leonora Gewessler, Austrian Climate Minister and Member of Parliament from the Green Party offered a deal in exchange for a new €1,000 (£852.25) Klimaticket at the St. Pölten Music Festival over the weekend.

She posted a photo of a tattoo on her own arm with the words «Gewessler takes the lead.»

But while her tattoo was dissolvable, the tent offered free annual passes to the first three people to receive the word Klimaticket, which stands for climate ticket. permanently tattooed on their arm.

Ms Gewessler insisted the promotion was no problem, but critics accused her of exploiting young people and using their skin to advertise her policies.< /p>

“It was done with great care. It's only done in daylight and is only offered to people over 18,» she told a local TV station.

«People who get tattoos basically already have them,» she added.

«Very stupid»

But Henrique Brandstetter, MP for the Liberal Party NEOS, said: «Offering people money to advertise under their skin shows the minister's unacceptable view of humanity.»

Florian Klenk, editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Falter, tweeted: “What's next? A free heat pump for those who tattoo Gewessler's name on their foreheads?

The liberal Austrian newspaper The Standard called the deal «absolutely stupid» and the Salzburger Nachrichten denounced it as «disguised cynicism.»

This time of year is known as the Sommerloch, the summer depression. – in the German-speaking world, when politicians are known for their left-wing promises to get media attention.

Other proposals this summer include that of the opposition Social Democrats to secure the right to a free bathing area. on the lake in the constitution, as well as the promise of Karl Nehammer, the Austrian chancellor, to constitutionally protect the right to carry cash.

While the Austrian government struggles in the polls by about 35 percent, Klimaticket has been praised as a model for subsidizing rail transport which other European countries can emulate as they seek to cut their carbon footprint.