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Frame: Youtube
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Thousands of protesters gathered in Vienna today to protest government measures to control the pandemic.
In the early afternoon police dispersed gathered in the city center, but near the Prater, which is a large park with woods and meadows, former hunting grounds during the empire, dusk gathered thousands of protesters convened a rally of the opposition right-wing Austrian party of Freedom (APS).
Initially, the assembly point was in the center of Vienna, from where the group started on the surrounding central boulevard and gradually new demonstrators joined it. They held their first rally on Heldenplatz, the main square in front of the parliament, BTA reported.
At Heldenplatz, APS spokesman Herbert Kickel delivered his first spontaneous anti-government speech to the assembled crowd.
In a speech he called an “overture,” Kickle spared no insulting qualifications for the government, talking about “crown-steel helmets in government offices” and “dirty guys” in ministries.
According to him, this is “a government that is approaching madness.” “Criticizing the government is not a crime,” Kickle said, “but in times like these, it’s a democratic civil right.” And more: tests in schools and regional strict quarantines are so strange and crazy, Kickle said, such a thing could not have been invented even by a Hollywood director.
Other MPs from the APS were also present at the rally. “I am happy to be on the side of the bad guys when it comes to regaining our rights,” Austrian radio and television quoted Dagmar Belakovic, an APS MP, as saying.
The media also quoted the party’s secretary general, Michael Schnedlitz, as saying, “Kurz is the one who ruined the country with his aides. Go ahead in this peaceful battle to achieve the common goal, which is to get Kurz out.”
This slogan was also carried by the demonstrators to the sound of the anthem and waving Austrian flags. Other posters read slogans “No to the compulsion to vaccinate” or “I will be fired because I do not get vaccinated”.
Former party chief Heinz Christian Strache also attended the demonstration. Several hundred counter-protesters tried to stop the march of the nationalists and police forces had to intervene to restore order.
In the later hours, the APS organized its own rally in the Prater under the motto “Democracy, Fundamental Rights and Freedoms”, at which Kikl spoke again. And this time his speech was full of insults against the government, the media and vaccines.
Kikl spoke of “intoxication with power”, announcing that society was divided by propaganda.
The right-wing politician also criticized Kurz’s visit to Israel this week, a country where, according to Kikl, “health apartheid” reigns.
The evening newsletter said police did not yet have definitive data on detainees and the number of people fined for failing to comply with pandemic protection requirements.
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