17 rallies registered, the police have banned 15. The FPÖ is now holding its own demo:
Report: Muhammad Amir Siddique Vienna Austria.
Eleven meetings had been registered for Saturday – ten of them with criticism of the coronavirus measures and a counter rally. This smaller rally is allowed to take place.
The majority of the CoV demonstrations registered for the weekend are not allowed to take place due to endangering the common good. Of 17 rallies registered, the police have banned 15. The FPÖ is now holding its own demo. Six meetings were announced for Sunday – four by coronavirus critics and two counter-demonstrations. According to the police, the latter also included a demo entitled “Education is on fire! Against the amendment to the University Act! ”A smaller rally is now permitted on Heldenplatz. According to the police, the demonstration entitled “Protest against the unreasonableness of politics” was registered for 30 people. Because there were gross violations of the CoV measures at previous meetings, the meetings were prohibited. Neither the minimum distance was observed, nor was it compulsory to wear a face mask during demonstrations. “In some cases it was even deliberately ignored,” said police spokesman Christopher Verhnjak. This weekend it was to be expected that there would again be massive violations,” he said. “The interest in public health outweighs the interest of individual organizers,” emphasized the police spokesman. The spread of the virus brought about by holding large meetings and the “resulting dangers to public health” could just as little be accepted as the resulting dangers of necessary further restrictions on fundamental rights and freedoms, the police emphasized in a broadcast. Health experts clearly assumed that contacts without maintaining the necessary distance and without wearing protective masks would lead to more secondary cases in a few days than previously observed, precisely because of the increased transferability of the new Covid-19 virus variants. If people who excrete the virus take part in gatherings without maintaining the required distance and without wearing mouth and nose protection, there is a risk of transmission against this background, which, in particular, due to the lack of traceability of contacts, the national efforts to reduce the The number of cases thwarted, emphasized the police. The Vienna State Police Directorate asked citizens not to obey calls for such large-scale meetings and to refrain from participating. Otherwise, the dissolution of the meetings must be expected, the police emphasized. This entails an immediate obligation to part and a ban on further gathering. Violations of this assembly law obligation can result in fines of up to 720 euros. In addition, there is a risk of fines of up to 500 euros for each individual disregard of the distance or mouth-nose protection requirement, the police reported. At one of the large demonstrations on Sunday, the former interior minister and FPÖ club chairman Herbert Kickl also wanted to give a speech. In a broadcast, the FPÖ assured the organizers of the forbidden demonstrations that they had “full backing”. The prohibition is a “scandal that is purely politically motivated”, criticized FPÖ General Secretary Michael Schnedlitz. The FPÖ unceremoniously announced a demonstration against the ban on demonstrations. It is still unclear whether this will also be prohibited. “Like everyone else, this will also be judged legally and a prognosis decision made,” said police spokesman Verhnjak on Friday afternoon. There have already been attacks on journalists in Austria in the past, contact officers who are marked accordingly will now be deployed at the weekend. They are intended to prevent disruptive or illegal actions against press employees.
