Austria: Police make arrests during ultra-right march, counter-protested by the left, in Vienna
More than 60 people were arrested by police in Vienna during an ultra-right march on Sunday, 21 July, which a left-wing counter-demonstration tried to disrupt. Austrian public broadcaster ORF reported the incident, citing a police spokesperson.
Anti-fascist groups repeatedly tried to disrupt the ultra-right march through the center of the Austrian capital by throwing fireworks and blockading the route by sitting in the street. As many as 800 police officers were deployed.
During the street brawling 62 people were arrested and three police officers were injured, police spokesperson Markus Dittrich said. Followers of the Austrian branch of the ultra-right Identitarian Movement were marching through the city to demand the repatriation of immigrants.
Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (Austrian People’s Party) said police will thoroughly prosecute all crimes committed “irrespective of whether they were perpetrated by left-wing or right-wing extremists or other enemies of democracy”. The Green Party and the Social Democrats (SPÖ) criticized the ultra-right march and pointed out that followers of the Identitarian Movement are also members of the populist, right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).
Austria will hold elections to Parliament on 29 September which are anticipated to confirm the Europe-wide trend toward the right. In the recent elections to the European Parliament, the FPÖ won with a narrow margin ahead of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP).
