So far, the rally of Kurdish and left-wing activists on Saturday in the late afternoon in Vienna’s favorites has been peaceful and without incident. “Everything is quiet,” the police told APA on request. After repeated clashes in the past few days, there was increased vigilance on Saturday by the police.
According to police, around 450 people took part in the rally, which took place at 5:30 p.m. on Columbusplatz. The demonstrators then headed for the Turkish embassy in Vienna-Wieden. One of the banners read: “Freedom for all political prisoners! No kneeling in front of the dictator Erdogan”. The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was depicted on it with a Hitler beard.
An Antifa banner read: “Together against fascism”. In addition to Antifa flags, YPJ flags were worn, for example. The YPJ are the women’s fighting associations of the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG), an armed Kurdish militia in Syria.
In the past few days, violent clashes between Kurdish and left-wing demonstrators, on the one hand, and Turkish-ultra-nationalist and right-wing extremist counter-demonstrators, on the other, had occurred in Vienna-Favoriten. There were injuries, arrests and property damage. As a result, the rally on Saturday saw increased attention from the police.
On Twitter, Antifa called on the streets again to take part in a “large-scale demonstration against the current aggressions of Turkish nationalist and Islamist groups” at 5:30 p.m. on Columbusplatz.
FPÖ leader Norbert Hofer and the Viennese state party leader Dominik Nepp, however, called on interior minister Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) to take action. Nepp asked the minister to ban the “foreigners’ demos”. Hofer wants a “cut in social benefits for demo rioters”.
The Vienna ÖVP raged especially against the red-green city politics. “In parallel, the parallel society that emerged there completely escalated. This is the result of the failed integration policy of Rot-Grün,” criticized city councilor Markus Wölbitsch and security spokesman Karl Mahrer. The demo participation by Vice Mayor Birgit Hebein (Greens) on Friday evening saw the two as a “scandal in a class of their own”.
Those: APA
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