The deeper point isn't that this is a conflict between groups whom the article describes as "aesthetes and ruffians"
No, the situation points more toward an identity crisis.
Gerald Matt, the director of the Kunsthalle, where attendance has dropped by two-thirds during the tournament, explained the problem. "It's a very strange mixture between an inferiority complex and megalomania." He invoked the Córdoba syndrome, referring to what, for Austrians, was that glorious time 30 years ago when the national team beat Germany, 3-2, in Córdoba, Argentina, fanning eternal delusions of grandeur.
Austrian politicians don't seem to value the international reputation their country has as the cultural lynchpin of Central Europe. It's sad, I suppose, but both sides in this issue are being ridiculous. One person interviewed compared the situation to the Anschluss. Ok.
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People were scared away, Holender said, by the specter of marauding hooligans spilling out of the so-called FanZone, the huge, cordoned-off area in the center of town where tens of thousands of spectators (not as many as the Austrians had expected) have peaceably been gathering to watch the soccer matches on giant screens, downing $4 pretzels and $7 cups of Carlsberg beer, if they can afford them. (Next to the national team losing last week to Germany, 1-0, Austrians seem most embittered about having to drink Danish beer.)
what a gem.
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