Nationalist parties are on the rise across Europe, from the German AfD to the French Rassemblement National, from Hungary to Austria. They instrumentalize fears and divide society. Their first victim is the freedom of art.

Our response is love! That's why the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) 2025 has the motto Republic of Love and the RESISTANCE NOW! debate is a preview of this. The Funkhaus plays a central role in this – it will become the House of the Republic from 16 May to 22 June 2025. The Free Republic of Vienna invites you to artistic productions, debates and parties, concerts and club nights in the historic and emotionally charged 1930s building. And the Croatian philosopher and activist Srećko Horvat will enrich this Republic of Love with his discursive-performative series Revolutionary Love.

Debate in Vienna

On the RESISTANCE NOW! tour, representatives of institutions, artists and activists will share their visions of a global, solidarity-based response to the dangers posed by the new nationalism.

After stops in Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, the USA and Serbia, the tour now lands in Vienna: Moderated by Milo Rau, Artistic Director of the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna, Dóra Büki from the Hungarian Proton Theatre, the dismissed director of the Slovak National Theater Matej Drlička and the Croatian philosopher and activist Srećko Horvat discuss how we can stand up together for democracy, diversity and the freedom of art.

Moderated by Milo Rau, Artistic Director of the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna

With: Srećko Horvat, Dóra Büki, Matej Drlička

https://www.festwochen.at/en/talk