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Vienna, Nov. 21 (BNA) Tens of thousands, many of them far-right supporters, protested in Vienna on Saturday against coronavirus restrictions, a day after the Austrian government announced a new lockdown and said vaccinations would become mandatory next year.
Crowds poured into Heroes’ Square in front of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace in central Vienna, in the early afternoon, one of the many protest sites, whistling, blowing horns and banging drums.
Many of the demonstrators waved Austrian flags and carried banners reading “No to vaccination”, “Enough is enough” or “Down with the fascist dictatorship”.
By mid-afternoon, the crowd had swelled to nearly 35,000 people, according to police, and it was driving down Vienna’s inner ring road before turning back toward the Hofburg.
Less than 10 arrests have been made, a police spokesman said, for breaching coronavirus restrictions and banning Nazi symbols, according to Reuters.
Roughly 66% of Austria’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, one of the lowest rates in Western Europe. Many Austrians are skeptical of vaccines, a view encouraged by the far-right Freedom Party, the third largest party in parliament.
With daily infections still setting records even after imposing a lockdown on the unvaccinated this week, the government said on Friday it would reopen the lockdown on Monday and make vaccination mandatory from February 1.
The Freedom Party (FPO) and other groups critical of vaccines were already planning a show of force in Vienna on Saturday ahead of Friday’s announcement, which prompted Freedom Party leader Herbert Kekel to respond, “As of today, Austria is a dictatorship.”
Kikel was unable to attend because he had COVID-19.
“We don’t support our government’s actions,” said one protester, who was part of a group wearing tin foil on their heads and waving bathroom mats. Like most of the protesters who spoke to the media, they declined to reveal their names, although the mood was celebratory.
HF