Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi
Born in Prague in 1932, Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi is a Czech-Austrian journalist. After working for several major Austrian newspapers, she became famous in the 1970s for a series of radio documentaries she made on Eastern bloc countries, above all in Poland and Czechoslovakia. She received a national award from Václav Havel for her work supporting democracy and human rights. Nowadays she writes for several Czech and Austrian papers.
The Kronen-Zeitung is the biggest, most influential Austrian newspaper. With three million readers, it supplies information to nearly every other Austrian. Hans Dichand, its 89-year-old editor-in-chief, does not shrink from acting like the country’s number-one politico using his publication as a political weapon, worries Der Standard.
Only 21% of Austrians intend to vote this June 7th. Europe, with its open borders, leaves its timorous citizens longing for the days when this "small, beautiful, prosperous" land was "an enclosed garden plot", argues Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi.