Little Milo had a question on his tongue. And he presented them – by post to Austria’s head of state. “Dear Mr. Federal President, why is your name so difficult?” the eight-year-old asked Alexander Van der Bellen in scrawled writing. In a science lesson test at school, the boy had not been able to spell the name correctly.
Van der Bellen was not at a loss for an answer and explained the background of his surname to the young author in a letter. His ancestors immigrated from the Netherlands more than 300 years ago, where the name is quite common.
“That’s what my friends call me”
Finally, the President had a special offer to little Milo. “If it’s too complicated for you, just write Sascha. That’s what my friends call me,” Van der Bellen ends his letter.
The correspondence landed on Facebook and Instagram, where it made more than 50,000 people smile. “Sascha is such a cool sock. And very nice on top of that,” says a comment there. “Best Federal President ever,” says another Facebook fan euphorically.
“Thunderbellen” rocks
The case of a young Upper Austrian shows that not only Milo has problems with the name of the head of state. Gabriel from Vorchdorf answered the question about the name of the Federal President in the subject teaching test with the sounding neologism “Thunderbellen”. “He rocked the science class test,” the president’s social media team noted at the time.
Source: Nachrichten
