Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehhammer has replaced the photo he published for the “Believe in Austria!” advertising campaign. launched by the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), which he leads, after netizens noticed that the image used rubles instead of euros.

Austria’s chancellor has launched a PR campaign with upbeat messages aimed at boosting public confidence in his ruling coalition, a year before an election, as his conservative party faces criticism and opinion polls point to a further rise in the far right in Austria.

Thus Nehammer presented a campaign called “Believe in Austria!” at the beginning of this week, admitting that the population is suffering from the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and inflation.

“At the same time, we saw that the Austrian people are much stronger than many thought and we ourselves believed,” says the head of the Austrian government in one of the campaign commercials.

Russian rubles in Nehammer’s campaign to encourage the Austrians

However, the campaign drew criticism and irony online after netizens noticed that the ÖVP had used a generic image for one of the campaign’s advertising messages, showing a family putting money into a piggy bank.

But the image, which Nehammer also shared, shows rubles, not euros, Austria’s official currency. The blunder immediately reminded of accusations of rapprochement between Vienna and Austria.

After reporting the mistake, Nehhammer’s party replaced the photo with a euro, and the Austrian chancellor then circulated a new version of the image.