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Anti-COVID demonstrators have taken to the streets of Vienna. Despite these gatherings have been banned by the Vienna police, politicians such as Herbert Kickl are instrumentalizing these gatherings to garner support for the Freedom Party. The Austrian government, opposition leaders and the catholic church have criticized these demonstrations. The right of assembly can and should not be misused to break laws and endanger the public.
Diana Mautner Markhof, 04.02.2021
Resistance to COVID-19 lockdown measures is growing in many countries. People are demonstrating in California, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and Vienna, to name a few. The German word of the year 2017, “Wutbürger,” characterizes the anti-lockdown protesters. The Duden dictionary defines Wutbürger (transl. enraged citizen) as, “Citizens protesting and demonstrating very violently in public out of disappointment with certain political decisions.” These COVID-19 skeptics/deniers and anti-vaxxers are gaining support globally. The latest show of force in Austria took place on Jan. 31, 2021, at what was labeled a “walk” in Vienna’s inner city. Thousands of participants of this walk circumvented the demonstration ban issued by the Vienna police by “coincidentally” taking a walk at the same place and time.
This gathering was the latest in a wave of demonstrations of this nature in Austria, the largest of which took place on January 16, where over 10,000 people were mobilized. Political groups such as the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) are trying to capture this segment of disgruntled voters by supporting these protesters, who mostly disregard the government’s anti-COVID-19 rules. At these protests, masks are absent, the required two meters distance between people is not kept and the restrictions on large gatherings of unrelated people are ignored. Over 2000 demonstrators are facing legal consequences ranging from administrative penalties to criminal charges; 11 have been arrested.
Radical groups and activists on the left and right, hooligans, neo-Nazis, and conspiracy theorists are infiltrating and misusing these demonstrations for their own purposes. Groups including the “Querdenker” (transl. lateral thinkers: a self-proclaimed non-partisan group of COVID deniers), the “Identitären” (an Austrian far-right nationalist organization), QAnon believers, artists and misguided religious fringe groups like “Hallelujah TV” joined the march, which also included regular families unhappy with the lockdown measures. Unscrupulous individuals even organized bus tours for people to be brought to the demonstrations and cashed in on these demonstrations.
