29. 12. 11. - 15:56

Faymann's Facebook finances unveiled

The chancellor’s office spends more than 37,000 Euros a year on its social media activities, it has emerged.

The office of Social Democratic (SPÖ) Chancellor Werner Faymann said yesterday (Weds) it planned to invest 37,010 Euros a year on his presence on Facebook, Twitter and a new homepage. It also announced that 84,498 Euros were spent on developing and setting up the SPÖ chief’s profiles on social networking website Facebook and instant messaging service platform Twitter.

Faymann’s office was forced to reveal the figures after the Alliance for the Future of Austria, an opposition party, filed a parliamentary request. The faction also heard that two of Faymann’s eight-member press service department were managing his latest online activities.

The head of a government coalition between the SPÖ and the People’s Party (ÖVP) came under fire recently when bloggers and internet experts found out that several fans of his Facebook site did not exist. Hundreds of people who linked their own Facebook profiles with the chancellor might have been created only to boost his reputation among young Austrians.

Faymann’s office initially said it suspected a campaign orchestrated by political opponents behind the affair before promising to examine the issue. The office also came under pressure by claims of newspapers like Kurier and Heute that they received hundreds of allegedly fake letters to the editor in which the SPÖ and Faymann were lauded. Some e-mails sent to the papers featured photographs from the database of image agencies offering profile pictures for just a few Eurocents, according to the controversial reports.

The Kurier reported last month that its feedback department counted at least 393 mails and letters sent and signed by nonexistent people in the past two years. The paper disclosed that Faymann – who has headed the SPÖ since 2008 – was praised "for fighting for the poorest of the poor" and for "preventing planned taxes affecting the masses."

Laura Rudas, the SPÖ’s general secretary announced: "We do not need approving e-mails sent from within the party. This is not a method we are using." Rudas’ statement came shortly after it was revealed that most of the e-mails were filed from a server managed by her party. The Social Democrat claimed it was impossible to find out who sent the letters over the internet since up to 800 people and SPÖ departments were using the same internet protocol (IP) address.

Political analyst Thomas Hofer branded Faymann’s new websites as "boring" while public opinion researcher Wolfgang Bachmayer said the chancellor’s reputation could be harmed by the revelations regarding his clumsy cyberspace initiatives. Faymann’s Facebook profile still struggles to gather fans while many people connect with right-winger Heinz-Christian Strache of the Freedom Party (FPÖ). The FPÖ boss is Austria’s most popular politician on the internet.

Faymann’s Twitter site suffered a weak start as well. Few messages have been posted by the SPÖ leader in the past weeks while a satirical character called Failmann draws the masses by posting amusing comments considering Faymann’s Austrian and European policies.