Florian Danner is back in Austria and has many new experiences and great experiences with him. The Café Puls moderator, who has found his adopted home in Eichgraben, took part in a US presidential election for the fifth time this year. In the course of his election hike from New York to Washington, he covered 476 kilometers of hiking in a good two weeks. “For me personally, America is simply a country that I have loved for many years. And in terms of global politics, that is the most important choice, despite everything. America is still number one world power. For us Austrians the second largest trading partner, so many jobs with us depend on what America does, ”says Florian Danner, summarizing his interest in the United States.
Dealing with the pandemic
Each of the five election campaigns he witnessed was something very special, this time special, of course, due to the very unusual president. What really impressed him was how much more disciplined most Americans are with the pandemic situation. “As soon as you meet someone on the sidewalk, you wear a mask – even if you only pass by. In New York as well as in small towns in the vast country of Pennsylvania, for example, ”he says. That was even the case at the Trump speeches, where the film team was.
“Of course the media shows people who are not wearing a mask. But even there, the clear majority wore masks. In the US there were simply so many deaths in early summer that people are much more aware. There is also no baby elephant, but a tiger as the minimum distance: 6 feet, that is just under two meters – significantly more than here, ”says Danner. All the parents he has spoken to have one thing in common – whether they are Trump or Biden voters: Homeschooling their children really gets on their nerves.
“I didn’t trust the polls.” Florian Danner
Many schools in the USA have been closed continuously since April and are also in lockdown until at least December. In general, however, according to Danner, awareness of the pandemic is greater in the USA than here.
The arrival at the White House in Washington was a blow: Florian Danner walked the last few meters, the cameraman was waiting for him in the presidential park and filmed arrival. “And then he turned off the camera and told me that shots had been fired in Vienna ten minutes ago. The 467 kilometers that I had just finished were quickly forgotten and I immediately called my wife, who was fortunately at home with the children in Eichgraben, and met friends who I suspected were in the city center. And then I made the mistake of reading on social media what kind of false reports people had posted because I couldn’t watch any Austrian TV programs in the USA Felt insignificant compared to what was just happening in Austria, says the moderator, still visibly affected.
As for the presidential election, Florian Danner did not trust the polls. Immediately after two or three days of wandering and the first encounters, he got the feeling that Joe Biden’s huge victory, as suggested by the polls, is unlikely to be. That was always just a gut feeling, of course, but he quickly met Trump supporters in a city as liberal as New York.
“You have to leave the tourist strongholds and into the residential areas, for example on Staten Island. In Pennsylvania, this extremely competitive state, I was on the road for almost a week – it was actually completely divided, ”he recalls. And this is also visible because it is customary in the USA to put the advertising sign of the favorite candidate in the front yard or in the window. But Danner found it nice to see how neighbors can still talk to each other quite normally, even if they have different political opinions. The Americans like to say “It’s just politics” – it’s just politics.
Florian Danner met Joe Biden twice a few years ago. In Denver in 2008, when he was still a senator and wanted to be president. At that time he wondered why, as an Austrian, he actually exchanged more than three words with him, even if no vote was to be expected. “And in 2016 I worked for the big US broadcaster NBC, I shouted a question to Biden from many meters away and he would come over and answer a few questions in front of the camera. That is not very common for an incumbent vice president, who tends to avoid any reporter question in the delicate election campaign, ”reports Danner.
He met Donald Trump a few times four years ago, but never so close. He only interviewed his daughter Ivanka, who is one of his closest advisers, twice. “By the way, she knows Austria and knows about the political situation and the unusual turquoise-green government here,” the US ambassador told me recently. That is also not very common for a president’s daughter, ”he summarizes the meeting. The man from Eichgraben can well imagine that the media reports are correct, according to which she strongly advises her father to accept the election result.
“My wife is just a heroine and shoved everything at home with the two boys”
Florian Danner is now very happy to be home again. “My wife is just a hero and shoved everything at home with the two boys. During the autumn vacation she was with the children in the Salzburger Land in the first snow of Saalbach for a few days – we are simply all big winter fans. “
Eight year old son fully in the picture
During his absence, the family telephoned twice a day – in the end the older son, at the age of eight, had already explained to him how many electoral votes Biden was currently ahead. “So you also fell for it because you were in the US for three months in the last election four years ago and have a connection to this country,” says his father proudly.
The Danners’ favorite sport has to wait a little longer. Ski jumping with the Vienna City Eagles is like so much in the corona waiting loop. Theo and Noah spend a lot of time on their mountain bikes in the Vienna Woods. “But the skis have grown. If we as a family could wish for something from the Christ Child, it would be that the ski areas are allowed to open this year or that there is also a really snowy winter in Eichgraben – even if the guys from Eichgraben Winter Service will curse me for it, ”says Florian Danner hopeful.
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