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Police announced on Friday that 1,500 police officers will be on duty, although it can still be increased on short notice. The size of the large rally in Vienna is likely to be similar to that of two rallies with around 10,000 participants in January.
Before the demonstration in the Prater, which had actually been announced for 3 pm, the motto was “Democracy, fundamental rights and freedom”, the head of the FPÖ club spoke spontaneously at Heldenplatz. In this performance, which he called “preliminaries,” he spoke of “Corona steel helmets in government offices” and “dirty guys” in ministries. There were also many other members of the FPÖ National Council such as Dagmar Belakowitsch and Secretary General Michael Schnedlitz.
Then the train started moving again, from Heldenplatz the protesters went through the castle gate and back into the ring. Shortly before 2 pm, the executive took action at Maria-Theresien-Platz and broke up the meeting there, police spokeswoman Barbara Gass reported. At around 4 p.m., the state police headquarters reported that both demonstration trains had arrived at the Prater. According to orf.at, representatives of the right-wing scene were once again among the participants of the demonstration, such as the identities or the convicted neo-Nazi Gottfried Küssel. Reinhard Schnakl, deputy director general of Public Safety, warned on Friday that right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists were playing in various demonstrations for the crown.
In the Prater, the president of the blue club spoke after a government in a “frenzy of power”, identified a division in society and “propaganda” in the media, his audience chanted the usual “lying press” in reaction. EU health policy is a “harmonized power play” because “up there they want to dominate us,” Kickl said, also referring to Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) visit to Israel on Thursday due to vaccines: there is a “apartheid health there”, the country is currently one of the “without freedom.” Then some anti-Semitic comments were heard from the audience. During the 40 minutes, Kickl sang “Short must go” several times and ended with a poem written by himself on the “tyranny of the Crown.”
The wearers of masks were a minority in the Jesuitenwiese: the request of the organizers to wear these masks and keep their distance was met with laughter. Many cans of beer were noted for this, and also the consequences of consuming them for some of the participants, who were clearly in a celebratory mood.
Counter demo from the left
For the left counter demonstration, around 200 participants gathered in the Votive Park shortly after 12 noon, most of them with bikes for the next bike demonstration. On the way to the Prater, clashes between anti-crown protesters and bicycle opponents were reported on various social media platforms. The executive’s use of pepper spray was reported on Twitter.
Police spokeswoman Barbara Gass told the APA that numerous arrests of participants in the demonstration marches had been made for non-compliance with Covid-19 measures and the assemblies law. At the moment, the state police headquarters did not provide information on the number of participants or the number of complaints. After the lines in the Prater decreased, the police reported that the Schüttelstrasse had to be closed again and again towards the city center, around 6 p.m. all the Danube canal bridges on the way were closed, so that numerous protesters also avoided the Aspernbrückengasse.
