PHOTO Chancellor Karl Nehammer advertised the campaign “Believe in Austria!” with rubles

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has replaced a photo he shared to promote the “Believe in Austria!” advertising campaign. launched by the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) he leads after netizens noticed that the image used rubles instead of euros.

Austria’s chancellor has launched a public relations campaign with upbeat messages aimed at boosting public confidence in his governing coalition, a year ahead of elections as his conservative party comes under fire and opinion polls point to a further rise of the far right. in Austria.

Nehammer thus presented the campaign he titled “Believe in Austria!” at the beginning of this week, admitting that the population is suffering from the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and inflation.

“At the same time, we saw that the Austrian people are much stronger than many believed and we ourselves believed,” says the head of the Austrian government in one of the campaign’s promotional videos.

Russian Rubles in Nehammer’s campaign to encourage the Austrians

However, the campaign attracted criticism and irony online after netizens noticed that the ÖVP used a generic image for one of the campaign’s promotional messages, showing a family putting money into a piggy bank.

But in the image that was also distributed by Nehammer, there are rubles, not euros, the official currency of Austria. The blunder immediately recalled the accusations of rapprochement between Vienna and Austria.

After reporting the blunder, Nehammer’s party replaced the photo with a euro one, with the Austrian chancellor then redistributing the image in its new version.