Austrian Beer Party surges in the polls after offering booze fountain in Vienna

• The leap to third in the polls with 12 per cent predicts their best ever vote share
• The Beer Party is led by former rockstar Marco Pogo and only formed in 2014
• Other policies include monthly barrels of beer for Austrian citizens 

The Austrian ‘Bier Partei’ (Beer Party) has enjoyed a surge to third place in the latest poll for the next Vienna state election, overtaking one of the current governing parties.

Policies behind the rise to an estimated 12 per cent vote share include a proposed beer fountain in the city, the scrapping of mandatory closing times and a 50 per cent tax on Radlers beer and ‘other atrocities’.

The party, led by former rockstar Marco Pogo, was only founded in 2014 and contested its first election five years later. They are yet to have anyone elected across three elections.

Research commissioned by Heute found the Beer Party to be polling third ahead of Autumn 2025’s Viennese state election, leading the minority party in the current coalition government – the New Austria and Liberal Forum (eight per cent).

They still trail the governing Social Democratic Party of Austria (35%) and the Freedom Party of Austria (23%).

The Austrian ‘Bier Partei’ poll third for the 2025 Vienna state election, with policies including a beer fountain in the city, and scrapping of enforced closing times (stock photo)

Former rockstar Marco Pogo only founded the Beer Party in 2014, but came third in last year’s presidential election

Although the party began as a satirical joke, it has since morphed into something more serious – with policies on education, transport and art and culture. 

But this is not at the expense of its more comedic original policies; still promising a beer fountain in the Austrian capital, a buyback scheme exchanging Radlers for ‘a real beer’ and free monthly barrels of beer to Austrian households. 

Specifically, this would come in at 50 litres per adult, and 20 per child 

The party have also overtaken the Greens (8%) and the Austrian People’s Party (10%) – second in 2020- according to this most recent poll.

Pogo, whose real name is Dominik Wlazny, first ran a campaign in 2019’s legislative election in response to the ‘Ibiza affair’ the same year – a scandal revealing the Freedom Part’s leadership had engaged in conversations with who they believed to be a Russian businesswoman about exchanging positive media coverage for government contracts.

In that election, the Beer Party only received 0.1 per cent of the national vote, with similarly limited results in the Vienna state election the next year.

However, a huge shift in popularity meant that in 2022’s presidential election, Pogo came third with over eight per cent of the vote.

The new poll suggests they could be King-makers in 2025 if they keep things up, potentially having enough seats to form a government with either the Freedom Party or the Social Democrats.

If not, they are still well in line for their first ever members in both the state council and city council.

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