Schmoozing with Äktschn Man

A week ago, returning from abroad, it would have been easy to convince me that I had been away four months rather than four weeks. It appeared as if spring had come, there was more grass to be seen than snow and the tow bars on the ski lift hung disconsolately on the motionless cable.

One week later and everything has changed. The snow has been dumping down, the wind blowing, the lift is towing skiers up the mountain and snow ploughs are busy keeping the roads clear. After a couple of hard hours clearing snow around the house, this blogger is sufficiently inspired to get back in action too.

Action is a popular word here though usually pronounced Ection with the “e” as in egg. But this week the Salzburg newspaper, on the front page of one section has spelt it “äktschn” which is as good a spelling of a word pronounced Ection as one can arrive at in the german language. Just to confuse matters, the german word “Aktion”, pronounced ak-tee-on means special offer.

Meanwhile, we have another election on the horizon, this time for the local council. We recently had a provincial election which was quite exciting as there had been a financial scandal, then a national election which was boring as the result is always a coalition. The parties then take three months to agree how it is going to work, during which time the country is in political limbo.

The coming council election is far more interesting. This is real local stuff. Here with a population of just a couple of thousand, voters know personally most of the candidates and the hopeful councillors know the residents.

The local council has its own budget, is responsible for local roads, property and services, employs its own staff, has influence over schools and residential homes for the elderly, liaison with business and also cultural activities. So this election is really hands-on. It is also the only election where non-Austrian but EU citizens, registered as residents, can vote.

We also get to elect the mayor who can have a real influence on our lives. For events like a planning application, he will be there, on the spot, to oversee the procedure. In fact he is pretty well everywhere; hardly an event, sporting, social or cultural takes place without him in attendance – a sort of Äktschn Man.

So as the candidates are going into äktschn perhaps to do a bit of voter schmoozing – we see that the English, too, aren’t against pinching and adapting a word like schmusen from German – and modifying its meaning.