“Jesus? Blood heals! Not the vaccination,” read a banner. “Homeland security instead of face mask” on another. And of course the words “Corona is a lie” could not be missing. Around 10,000 people came to the demonstration against the Corona measures in Vienna on Saturday.
The former FP chairman Heinz-Christian Strache also appeared between angry citizens, esotericists and right-wing extremists: like many others – at least temporarily – without a mask, as photos showed. While the homeland guards waved their red-white-red flags and chanted “Short must go”, the “Identitaries” campaigned with Martin Sellner for “Freedom, Peace, Sovereignty”.
The police confirmed on Saturday that the neo-Nazi Gottfried K., who had been convicted several times, was at the demo with two buses full of like-minded comrades from the Oberwart area. Apparently also with the old comrades-in-arms from the times of the illegal “People Loyal Extra-Parliamentary Opposition” (VAPO). According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, there are strong indications that K. Kader from VAPO times wants to rally around himself again. The VAPO was a militant neo-Nazi group founded in 1986, K. was its chairman.
Counter demo against “madness”
“Against this madness on Heldenplatz”, however, about 150 young socialists and anti-fascist activists marched on Stephansplatz. Representatives of the “black bloc” were also spotted. In the area of the parlor gate there was finally a confrontation between left and right.
About 20 counter-demonstrators sat on the road to block the march of the corona deniers. “We vaccinate you all” was the slogan of the left activists. This created a group of football hooligans who wanted to attack the counter-demonstrators. But the police, who had arrived with a large contingent, were able to tell the two groups apart.
The results of the Viennese police: three arrests because of resistance to the state authority, another 17 arrests because of administrative violations, for example because the identity could not be determined or because of aggressive behavior. In addition, there were 14 reports of criminal offenses and 296 reports of administrative law.
156 of them related to the Covid 19 Measures Act. 242 identity determinations were carried out. The police emphasized that a large number of the participants did not wear mouth and nose protection. But “for reasons of the principle of proportionality and police tactical necessities, the large-scale demonstration was not broken up, but instead reported.”
