Broken barriers, groups of demonstrators who marched unannounced through Vienna, hundreds of reports, seven arrests and one injured police officer. And yet state police president Gerhard Pürstl drew a positive balance on the day after the demo chaos in the federal capital.
The lax handling of the Viennese police with the Corona demonstrators not only led to chaos in the capital on the last Saturday of shopping, but also to a lack of understanding among the population. Nevertheless, the management of the executive was satisfied the day after. “The goal of the opponents of the Corona measures that demonstration trains with several thousand people get into the city center and paralyze business activity, we have thwarted by our tactics,” said Pürstl on Sunday. “Large demonstration trains prevented” were repeated at the demonstration yesterday Bengal ignited. Smaller groups subsequently separated from the larger demonstration and moved in other directions. At around 4 p.m., a group of protesters on Gumpendorfer Strasse was stopped by the police. Another group also gathered on Stephansplatz. However, the prohibition of nine gatherings resulted in the fact that there was ultimately only one stand rally with around 2000 participants on Schwarzenbergplatz, according to Pürstl. Large demonstrations with many thousands of participants, as in the previous weekends, could have been prevented by the prohibitions, the police explained the tactics. Part of the police tactics was also the fragmentation of the demonstrations in order to avoid a “grand march” it further. Ultimately, around 150 to 200 people in the Stephansplatz area and around 400-500 people in the Mariahilfer Straße area came together from different directions, which could be stopped and ultimately dissolved Holding rallies should actually have been protected – but the demo groups still had. Business owners complained of a lack of customers. Since the demonstrators marched across the ring – despite the marching ban – there were massive operational restrictions on the public transport lines in the city center because the boulevard had to be closed. A total of seven arrests were made for resistance against state power or assault and over 300 ads. A policewoman was injured while on duty.
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