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Participants in the solidarity demonstration in Vienna.
© WHAT
On Monday night, numerous people demonstrated against homophobia in Vienna. After a rainbow flag was torn off at an event by far-right opponents of the coronavirus measures on Saturday and homosexuals were generally denounced as “child abusers,” the Greens called the rally.
Green human rights spokesperson Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic had only invited the demonstration under the slogan “There is no place for hate” on Monday morning. This call was followed by a “staggering number, I’d say over 2,000” people, the MP told the APA on Monday night. The executive estimated the number of participants compared to the APA at around 1,000. In the morning, Ernst-Dziedzic asked those responsible for Saturday’s incident to apologize “in all its forms” to the LGBTIQ community.
Homophobic activists showed up at the rally, but there were no apologies. “There was no idea, no excuse, that something had been done that had no place on the open stage,” Ernst-Dziedzic said after the rally, in which he had tried to talk to activists to reduce the escalation. He also denounced several riots “on at least two sides of the demonstration”, “where clashes would undoubtedly have occurred had the police not been there.” The human rights spokesperson was impressed by the large number of participants: there was a “large degree of mobilization”, “because everyone said on Saturday that it just couldn’t be done.” Police said the demonstration passed without incident.
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