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The Upper Austrian Regional Administrative Court (LVwG) followed the organizers’ complaint that the decision should be remedied without replacement, LVwG announced in a broadcast on Monday.
Due to the high risk of corona infection when walking, the march from the main square over the Nibelungen Bridge and back was not approved. With reference to the Epidemic Law, Luger had issued conditions for the meeting, according to which a maximum of 1,000 participants were allowed to attend a permanent rally. The activists had their fundamental right to freedom of assembly restricted and went to court.
The LVwG upheld the complaint that “the prescription of conditions based on the Epidemic Law” by the mayor as a health authority was illegal. “The right to assemble peacefully, guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights”, can only be restricted by law to protect certain interests. The Covid 19 Measures Ordinance, which was issued on the basis of the Epidemic Law, regulates exactly the requirements under which rallies can be held. However, the restrictions ordered by Luger went further.
LVwG had already lifted the Corona-related ban on an animal protection demonstration in Linz in July. The court ruled that the violation of fundamental rights outweighed the interest in preventing the assembly for health reasons.
Resolved legal uncertainty
The mayor of Linz, Klaus Luger (SPÖ), sees the decision of the regional administrative court “solving the prevailing legal uncertainty”. The health authority had a different legal opinion at that time. “For the future it is also certain that in similar cases the basic right to freedom of assembly will be placed above the protection options of federal Covid laws,” Luger said in a broadcast.
Helge Langer, president of the Linz Greens club, hopes that the mayor “will adhere to the legal requirements in the future and not ignore the applicable provisions.” For the chairman of the Linz NEOS parliamentary group, Lorenz Potocnik, the ban was a “destructive and arbitrary act”. He accuses Luger of trying to “stop” a demonstration because “the Fridays for Future in Linz don’t suit him.”
