Brief Update on Austria

The Brittle Covidistan Régime

The situation in Austria is, as the saying goes, overly dynamic of late. It is, of course, quite impossible to summarise everything that is going on, but I shall try to provide you with some of the information that isn’t readily available in the ‘international’ media.

Dreadlocks and Karma warriors, right-wingers and concerned parents. It surely was a rather unusual mix of protesters in Vienna last Saturday (see my take here). One thing united the 40,000 (according to the police) to 100,000 (according to the various organisers) people: criticism of power and anger at the failure of politics. If there was one underlying theme, words such as ‘it’s (more than) enough’ would probably be it. Still, these protests were the largest demonstration since 2000 when some 150,000 people protested against the conservative-and-far-right government.

Still, the situation on the ground is rapidly evolving. While there is quite drastic gaslighting ongoing everywhere, details on the Covidistan régime are quite scarce to come by. Yes, a lot of things seem ‘normal’, as far as this can be said in this fourth round of house arrests (it’s, again, two weeks to ‘crush the curve’, this time), and on top of it, the putschists now seek to make the experimental gene therapies masquerading as ‘vaccines’ mandatory by 1 Feb. 2022, all evidence to the contrary be damned.

More Protests Virtually Everywhere

Despite the lack of any one coordinating force, today was another day of protests. There were 30,000 protesters in Austria’s second-largest city, Graz (see the picture below), which was the largest mass protest since 1945, as even state broadcaster ORF admitted. Up to 6,000 protesters gathered in Klagenfurt, which is the state capital of Carinthia, Austria’s southernmost state. There were further protests in St. Pölten, Lower Austria, and Innsbruck in the Tyrol (the below pic is from Graz):

These numbers may seem small, but keep in mind that most Austrian cities outside Vienna are comparatively small: Graz has some 290,000 inhabitants, hence, these 30,000 protesters are more than 10% of the resident population. It would appear that public anti-government sentiment is increasing from last weekend, and on 4 Dec. 2021, a new mass protest is planned to take place in Vienna.

Meanwhile, the self-identifying as left-liberal and régime-supporting daily Der Standard reported the following items:

All told, according to police, 40,000 people marched throughout the country: mind you, all without any one organizing force, against the régime and forced vaccinations.

Ominous Tidings in the Countryside

In Gleisdorf, a small municipality of 11,000 inhabitants some 20km outside Graz, this is happening, according to Der Standard (my emphases):

‘For a few weeks now, the hometown [of Gleisdord’s mayor Christoph Stark] has been showing a very different face. Especially on Fridays and Sundays. 1,500 to 2,000 Corona demonstrators [that would be 13-19% relative to the town’s total population] march through Gleisdorf, many with torches in their hands. They become more and more each time. “There are mothers with strollers, young and old alike, and some from the extreme right, the latter mainly coming in from outside”, says Stark. (…) The majority of the demonstrators come, however, hail from the county, from Graz and southern Burgenland. Some came from Vienna.’

Gleisdorf’s mayor Stark is also a MP for the conservative ruling party, the ÖVP, hence much of the disagreement arose, apparently, over Stark’s willingness to prioritise toeing the party line over representing ‘his’ constituents.

The same disconnect, though, can be seen in what that piece says about the deputy mayor:

‘[Stark] does not know who is organising the demonstrations in the town, nor how all this can still be dealt with. The deputy mayor is also at her wits’ end. “I work in communications and can only remain optimistic that we can still convince people that there is only one solution in this pandemic, and that is vaccination. I hope we can still reach them”, says [Katharina] Schellnegger [of the Greens, the junior party in the governing coalition in Vienna].

What irritates her is that “they are completely normal people who are demonstrating. A cross-section of the population, people who can’t cope with the pandemic, who are afraid, and obviously see the protests as an safety valve.” She is amazed at who is participating, among them there is also a person she knows privately “who is actually very fond of science and is now taking the horse de-wormer”.’

(On the Ivermectin thing, it suffices to know that, months after the horse de-wormer meme was a thing, it’s also arrived in Austria.)

And Brewing Rebellion Among Law Enforcement

The final snippet of information I like share today is an open letter by 50+ police officers in Austria’s westernmost state, Vorarlberg. All Police in Austria is federal, yet the HR situation is particularly dire, as Vorarlberg is the least policed state of all. Here’s Der Standard on this issue (my emphases):

‘[The open letter] also calls for an end to “compulsory vaccination for children and adults”, for rapid antigen tests to be used again instead of 2G as proof of immunity, and for an end to “scaremongering and this language of violence”, as well as refusal to engage in dialogue and the obligation to wear masks. Although the letter is not signed, the Vorarlberg State Police Directorate assumes that it is genuine—although they doubt that more than 50 people are actually behind the letter.’

Now the brittle state of affairs comes to the fore, not only because of the limited number of officers available—who apparently cannot be relied upon to actually enfore the Covid-19 measures—but also because of this (same source; my emphases):

‘Hans-Peter Ludescher, Director of the State Police Directorate, found clear words in his reply: “The freedom of opinion of each individual finds its limits when all police officers who faithfully carry out the Covid-19 measures are anonymously accused of ‘losing their democratic and moral compass’.” The letter represents “a breach of the oath to the laws of the Republic of Austria” and thus contradicts the culture and values of the Vorarlberg police—because such a letter damages the trust of the population in the executive.’

You see, all police being federal in Austria, a number of officers stating that they’d follow their conscience—which is, by the way, a legally protected stance since, and esp. because of WW2—rather than the diktats of the Covidistan régime, that’s a big thing. It’s also quite unheard of since 1945.

Keep in mind, Austria is a small country. There’s perhaps some 30,900 officers in total, spread out across about 1,000 precincts. 50+ officers in the smallest state telling everyone that they’re potentially on the side of the people, well, that’s…a potential game-changer.

Stay tuned for next week’s development leading up to the big protest scheduled for 4 Dec. 2021.