VIENNA, Italy (AP) — Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through Vienna on Saturday, many of them from far-right organisations, after the Austrian government declared a statewide lockdown beginning Monday to combat soaring coronavirus infections.
On Saturday, protests against viral restrictions were held in Switzerland, Croatia, Italy, Northern Ireland, and the Netherlands, a day after Dutch police opened fire on protestors and seven people were injured in Rotterdam riots.
Protesters demonstrated against coronavirus limitations and mandatory COVID-19 permits, which are required in many European countries to attend restaurants, Christmas markets, and sporting events, as well as mandated vaccinations.
The Austrian lockdown will begin on Monday, as average daily fatalities have risen in recent weeks, and hospitals in hard-hit provinces have warned that their intensive care units are near capacity. The lockdown will continue at least ten days, but may extend up to twenty, according to officials. People will be permitted to leave their houses only for particular purposes, such as shopping, going to the doctor, or exercising.
Vaccinations will also be made mandatory by the government beginning on February 1. Not about 66 percent of Austria’s 8.9 million people are completely immunised, and immunisation rates have plateaued at one of the lowest in Western Europe.
The march began on Saturday in Vienna’s vast Heldenplatz plaza. Protesters marched through the city’s inner ring road, chanting “Resistance!” and blowing whistles. Many held placards ridiculing Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg and Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein and waved Austrian flags. Some wore scrubs, while others wore tinfoil hats. The majority of the placards centred on the vaccination mandate: “My Body, My Choice,” read one. “We’re Standing Up for Our Children!” said another.
Members of far-right and extreme-right organisations and groups protested, including the far-right Freedom Party, the anti-vaccine MFG party, and the extreme-right Identitarians.
According to police, around 1,300 policemen were on duty, and 35,000 demonstrators took part in several marches across the city, with the majority not wearing masks. Police stated that some protestors had been detained, but did not provide particular figures.
Herbert Kickl, the Freedom Party leader who tested positive for COVID-19 this week and was forced to remain in seclusion, spoke via video, decrying what he called “totalitarian” efforts by a government “that believes it should think and decide for us.”
On Friday, Schallenberg apologised to all vaccinated persons, saying it was unfair that they had to suffer as a result of the renewed lockdown restrictions.
“I’m sorry to take this dramatic measure,” he said on ORF, the German public broadcaster.
According to public broadcaster SRF, 2,000 people in neighbouring Switzerland opposed an approaching referendum on whether to ratify the government’s COVID-19 limitations bill, arguing it was discriminatory.
Despite organisers called off the demonstration, hundreds gathered in Amsterdam’s central Dam Square a day after the Rotterdam riots. They went quietly through the streets of the city, closely watched by police.
“We absolutely do not condone what occurred in Rotterdam.” “It stunned us,” he told NOS.
In Italy, 3,000 people gathered in the capital’s Circus Maximus, a field where Romans once performed popular entertainment, to protest the requirement for “Green Pass” certificates at workplaces, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, sports venues, and gyms, as well as long-distance train, bus, or ferry travel within Italy.
“People like us never give up,” said one banner in the Italian flag’s red, white, and green colours. At the Rome demonstration, hardly no one donned a protective mask.
Hundreds of people protested outside Belfast’s city hall on Saturday, as the city’s Christmas market opened – a fair that needed proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test.
The Northern Ireland government agreed last week to require vaccination certificates for entry into nightclubs, pubs, and restaurants beginning December 13.
Some demonstrators held banners that were widely denounced as inappropriate, linking coronavirus limitations to Nazi Germany’s activities.
Thousands gathered in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb, waving Croatian flags, nationalist and religious symbols, as well as placards against vaccination and what they call limits on people’s liberties.
In France, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin criticised violent protests in Guadeloupe, one of France’s overseas possessions in the Caribbean. Darmanin stated that police had apprehended 29 persons overnight. Authorities are deploying 200 additional police officers to the island and will enforce a nighttime curfew from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Tuesday.
Protesters in Guadeloupe have set fire to automobiles and blocked roads. They oppose France’s COVID-19 health permit, which is necessary to enter restaurants and cafés, cultural institutions, sports arenas, and long-distance travel. They are also opposing mandated vaccinations for health-care professionals in France.