New Year Riots in Vienna: “No Tolerance” by Nehammer

The mob reportedly fired at the police officers with rockets or firecrackers while shouting “Allahu Akbar”.

After several material damage caused by pyrotechnic objects in the area of ​​Reumannplatz in Vienna-Favoriten, the police launched a large-scale operation. The APA learned that burning objects were also thrown at the police. Pyrotechnic objects are said to have twice the explosive power of an active hand grenade. An arriving radio car was also fired with pyrotechnics and a Christmas tree was sprayed with flammable liquid. There were nine temporary arrests.

“We have absolutely no tolerance for such actions,” Nehammer emphasized. The Interior Minister considered the crimes “a sign of a profoundly undemocratic and unsupportive attitude.” “Anyone who cannot identify with our social values ​​and tries to break them must face all legal consequences.”

The Viennese police will proceed with a “large-scale action against the offenders and all those who have participated,” announced the Interior Minister. “From now on, uniformed special units, but also civilian investigators, will carry out controls mainly in Vienna-Favoriten,” said the president of the Vienna State Police, Gerhard Pürstl.

Pürstl will now also discuss the situation of the security police at a security summit with representatives of the city of Vienna and “will draw joint conclusions from the point of view of the integration and security police,” as the statement said. Nehammer thanked the police officers for their commitment to the “difficult situation”.

Property damage is likely to be high. Numerous windows were smashed, garbage cans, newspaper racks, benches, and gum machines were blown up. The mafia is said to have consisted of numerous people, most of them with immigration backgrounds. Two suspects, a 16-year-old Syrian and a 21-year-old Syrian, were detained at a house. In an apartment in the building, the police found other people who were allegedly involved in the riot: two Austrians (14 and 15), two Iraqis (20 and 22) and three Syrians (23, 27 and 29 years old). .

In the course of the incident, the 21-year-old is said to have attempted to break into a jewelry box with a garbage can that had been turned into a battering ram. Unlike the other suspects, he remained in police custody.

The Vienna ÖVP criticized after recent incidents on a broadcast “the failure of integration” of Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ). On the part of the FPÖ, Viennese party leader Dominik Nepp was “shocked” by “mobs of criminal Islamist immigrants,” according to a broadcast. The interior minister has been “completely inactive” since the riots began in June 2020, Nepp criticized. The unrest is “the result of the rampant mass immigration of the past decades.” The leader of the blue federal party Norbert Hofer called for deportations and for “rioters” with Austrian citizenship to participate in repairing the damages.