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12 points for Vienna’s cost of living

Vienna is not only the world’s most liveable city - according to international consulting firm Mercer - but it’s also one of the best value capitals in Europe.

Published: 22 May 2015 12:29 CEST

12 points for Vienna's cost of living

Photo: R Waites

On the occasion of the 60th Eurovision Song Contest being held in the Austrian capital, Mercer has now looked at the cost of living in Vienna, comparing prices for a cup of coffee, a hamburger, a soft drink, a pint of beer and a taxi ride in London, Paris, Rome and Berlin.

“In comparison to other European capitals Vienna is not expensive, despite its high quality of life,” Josef Papousek, managing director of Mercer Austria said.

The results suggest that Vienna must seem cheap for Eurovision fans visiting from Italy and France.

A cup of coffee in Vienna costs on average €2.83 (if you avoid the traditional tourist cafes in the 1st district that is), whereas in Rome it costs €3.13 and in Paris €3.70.

A pint of beer in Vienna costs on average €4.30, that’s €2.64 less than a pint in London. The same beverage would cost twice as much in Paris or Rome, €9.11 and €8.50 respectively.

“Fans from England, France or Italy should be careful that they don’t get too excited by the cheap beer and overdo it,” cautioned Papousek.

Public transport in Vienna is also astonishingly good value compared to other European capitals – a yearly travel cards costs just €365, for use on metro trains, trams and buses. No wonder then that with 931 million passengers per year, Vienna is among the cities with the highest proportion of public transport users in Europe.

Rents are also cheaper than in London, Paris and Rome, with more than 60 percent of people living in subsidised public housing in the Austrian capital.

Cup of coffee

Vienna: €2,83 Berlin: €3,10 London: €4,26 Paris: €3,70 Rome: €3,13

Hamburger

Vienna: €6,29 Berlin: €5,69 London: €6,03 Paris: €6,40 Rome: €6,65

Soft drink

Vienna: €3,70 Berlin: €4,67 London: €4,26 Paris: €5,87 Rome: €3,43

Pint of beer

Vienna: €4,30 Berlin: €4,10 London: €6,94 Paris: €9,11 Rome: €8,50

Source: Mercer Cost of Living survey

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Vienna Festival director Milo Rau hits back at anti-Semitism accusations

As the conflict in Gaza sharply polarises opinion, “we must be inflexible” in defending the free exchange of ideas and opinions, the acclaimed Swiss director told AFP in an interview this week.

“I’m not going to take a step aside… If we let the antagonism of the war and of our society seep into our cultural and academic institutions, we will have completely lost,” said the 47-year-old, who will inaugurate the Wiener Festwochen, a festival of theatre, concerts, opera, film and lectures that runs until June 23rd in the Austrian capital and that has taken on a more political turn under his tenure.

The Swiss director has made his name as a provocateur, whether travelling to Moscow to stage a re-enactment of the trial of Russian protest punk band Pussy Riot, using children to play out the story of notorious Belgian paedophile Marc Dutroux, or trying to recruit Islamic State jihadists as actors.

Completely ridiculous

The Vienna Festival has angered Austria’s conservative-led government — which is close to Israel — by inviting Greek former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and French Nobel Prize winner for literature Annie Ernaux, both considered too critical of Israel.

A speech ahead of the festival on Judenplatz (Jews’ Square) by Israeli-German philosopher Omri Boehm — who has called for replacing Israel with a bi-national state for Arabs and Jews — also made noise.

“Who will be left to invite? Every day, there are around ten articles accusing us of being anti-Semitic, saying that our flag looks like the Palestinian flag, completely ridiculous things,” Rau said, as he worked from a giant bed which has been especially designed by art students and installed at the festival office.

Hamas’ bloody October 7th assault on southern Israel and the devastating Israeli response have stoked existing rancour over the Middle East conflict between two diametrically opposed camps in Europe.

In this climate, “listening to the other side is already treachery,” lamented the artistic director.

“Wars begin in this impossibility of listening, and I find it sad that we Europeans are repeating war at our level,” he said.

As head of also the NTGent theatre in the Belgian city of Ghent, he adds his time currently “is divided between a pro-Palestinian country and a pro-Israeli country,” or between “colonial guilt” in Belgium and “genocide guilt” in Austria, Adolf Hitler’s birthplace.

Institutional revolution

The “Free Republic of Vienna” will be proclaimed on Friday as this year’s Vienna Festival celebrates. according to Rau, “a second modernism, democratic, open to the world” in the city of the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, and artist and symbolist master Gustav Klimt.

Some 50,000 people are expected to attend the opening ceremony on the square in front of Vienna’s majestic neo-Gothic town hall.

With Rau describing it as an “institutional revolution” and unlike any other festival in Europe, the republic has its own anthem, its own flag and a council made up of Viennese citizens, as well as honorary members, including Varoufakis and Ernaux, who will participate virtually in the debates.

The republic will also have show trials — with real lawyers, judges and politicians participating — on three weekends.

Though there won’t be any verdicts, Rau himself will be in the dock to embody “the elitist art system”, followed by the republic of Austria and finally by the anti-immigrant far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), which leads polls in the Alpine EU member ahead of September national elections.

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