More than 50 people were arrested by police in Vienna on Sunday as they clashed with protesters trying to to interrupt a march of hundreds of right-wing extremists.
Saturday’s protests came as Austrian political parties gear up for September’s parliamentary elections, in which the far right is expected to see a significant surge.
Anti-concentrations
Anti-fascist groups and left-wing political parties have called for protests against a rally and march by ID and other far-right activists, the Austrian News Agency reported. Social media posts showed protesters in central Vienna holding a banner calling for “return,” a term used to advocate the mass return of migrants to their home countries.
SOLIDARITÄT MIT COMPACT – FAESER MUSS WEG!
The participants of today’s Remigrations demonstration in Vienna demonstrated their solidarity with the banned COMPACT-Magazin through a transparent document. Die Demanderung is clear: #FaeserMussWeg!
I forgot them @HeimatKurier pic.twitter.com/CD2fCikaRb
-HeimatKurier (@HeimatKurier) July 20, 2024
Hundreds of officers were deployed to keep the warring groups – each made up of hundreds of people – at bay.
Forty-three people were temporarily arrested for refusing to end a protest that blocked the march, APA reported, citing municipal police.
Another 10 were arrested after some masked protesters threw rocks and bottles. Three officers were injured and the windows of a patrol car were broken, police said.
Before the violence began, the far right marched under a banner that read in English: “Children want repatriation.”
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, a conservative, said police would prosecute crimes, including during protests, “whether committed by left-wing or right-wing extremists or other enemies of democracy.”
A few months before the elections
Austria goes to the polls on September 29 for the elections, which should confirm a recent pan-European trend towards the political right. The far-right Freedom Party narrowly defeated the conservative People’s Party in the recent European Parliament elections.
Politicians from left-wing parties, including the Greens – the Conservatives’ current coalition partner – and the opposition Social Democrats, warn that a government including the Liberal Party would embolden far-right radicals.
“They want nothing more than the end of our pluralistic democratic society,” said Eva Blimlinger, spokeswoman for the Greens.
Source: Euronews