Good News: Liechtenstein Votes Against Future Mandates. In Other News, Austria Vows to Oppose Further Sanctions vs. Russian Energy

Of course, this was barely reported by legacy media, quite certainly lest the hoi polloi remembers its actually the sovereign; also, Austria promises to join Hungary in its opposition to sanctions

Introduction: I’m still short on time, so I’ll be posting a translated piece from my colleagues over at tkp.at—the weblog for Politics & Science. As reported yesterday by independent journalist and friend of these pages Thomas Oysmüller, the piece concerns the small Principality of Lichtenstein, a tiny statelet—in fact the one remaining leftover from the Holy Roman Empire (it’s not Europe’s only pre-modern statelet, as the continued existence of the similarly small princelets of Monaco and Andorra indicates; the Vatican is of younger vintage, by the way)—nestled in-between the two alpine republics of Austria and Switzerlands.

What did the people of Liechtenstein do? Well, here’s Thomas Oysmüller’s account; as always, all emphases are mine, and the piece is followed by a few ‘Bottom Lines’.

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Liechtenstein: Referendum Renders Return of Covid Mandates [‘2G-Gesetz’] Impossible

On Sunday, the citizens of Liechtenstein voted against the future possibility of a ‘2G law’ [i.e., mandates that incl. Covid Passports] in a referendum. This ties the government’s hands.

The newly founded Liechtenstein party ‘Mensch im Mittelpunkt’ [lit. Human in the Centre] is celebrating a great success. With a referendum initiated by it, the ‘2G rule’ was stuffed back into Pandora’s Box. 52.7% of Liechtenstein voters rejected the ‘2G law’ in a referendum last Sunday.

No [more] 2G in Liechtenstein

If the Liechtenstein government wants to implement vaccination segregation again this winter, the population has put the government clearly on notice. [The government] will no longer be able to restrict access to public and private spaces to those who have been vaccinated. The referendum last Sunday simply asked: ‘Should the government be able to pass 2G rules, if a new wave of Covid comes?’

The result:

Yes: 6,366 votes, or 47.3%, who voted in favour; no: 7,101 votes, or 52.7%.

While turnout was 66.8%, a clear majority of 52.7% opposed the government’s opportunity to (re)introduce a mandatory ‘Covid Passport’. Legacy media and establishment politicians had tried everything to steer the referendum in the other direction, but they narrowly failed.

Lawless Government

This was a great success for the ‘Mensch im Mittelpunkt’ party. They had campaigned against 2G with this leaflet.

The leaflet mentions (i) ‘the effect of 2G is in doubt…particularly with its effect on hospitalisations’; (ii) the continued availability of ICU beds in neighbouring Switzerland; (iii) there are alternatives to 2G, esp. as 2G renders ‘unvaccinated members of a risk group’, even though treatment options [by which are meant Paxlovid and other newer ones] are available’

Liechtenstein’s government needed a new ‘2G law’ because the Constitutional Court had overturned the law passed last winter at the beginning of June. Unlike the Austrian Constitutional Court, which had even waved through the ‘lockdown for the unvaccinated’, the Liechtenstein Supreme Court saw no legal basis for vaccination segregation and isolation of the unvaccinated.

In Liechtenstein, ‘2G’ had applied from 15 Dec. 2021 through 18 Feb. 2022. With the referendum in the Principality, this regulation cannot return. This is a major defeat for the government led by Daniel Risch of the ‘Patriotic Union’ (Vaterländische Union, the country’s major liberal-conservative party), even if the result is now being trivialised in the media. If not played down, the vote was ‘explained’ by the fact that citizens would no longer expect a ‘violent’ Corona wave.

In larger [German-language] newspapers, the vote is but a marginal affair. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung [Switzerland’s NYT equivalent] mentioned Sunday's referendum in one paragraph only. In Austria, only the right-alternative Wochenblick reported on it on Wednesday.

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Bottom Lines

Well, if people only knew—hence this piece.

I doubt that, at this point in time, governments can re-introduce any of the Covid mandates as long as the voting public gets to weigh in. Hence, it’s quite reasonable to call whatever will happen this autumn and winter a kind of tyrannical imposition that flaunts the norms, procedures, and perhaps the very notion of popular sovereignty, to say nothing about the consent of the governed.

In other words: stay tuned for the further erosion of the legitimacy of the entire system of Western governance. True and honest alternatives are far and few between, with no hope for betterment in the foreseeable future.

Not only will We the People no stand for it, but it’s probably quite fair to assume the following points that characterise the present dilemma:

Since the emergence of Omicron (whatever variant), it’s clear that ‘containment’ as a viable policy option has become irrelevant. All attempts to keep up with appearances have failed, and there’s simply no way, as long as Omicron continues to be dominant, that this basic fact will change.

Omicron (whatever variant) is also the injection-escape variant, hence these products are basically useless, in addition to all the other problems, such as repeat-dose toxicity, the still (!) unknown quantity and duration of production of the extinct Wuhan spike protein, which is very pathogenic (toxic). Failure abounds, but this doesn’t stop the European Medicines Agency from fully licensing the mRNA concoctions last week.

This step, in addition to the continuation of the Covid Passport system without emergency by the EU earlier this year will do nothing in terms of rendering these accoutrements of containment a viable option. I doubt that the Covid Passport as an intra-EU measure can be reintroduced on a large scale. If anything, I would suspect the Covid Passport to be demanded for immigrants and/or third-country arrivals, thereby guaranteeing some profits from these injections for the foreseeable future.

Finally, in combination with the EU’s ill-advised and hare-brained notion of ‘energy emergency planning’, we’ll probably see their reputation erode even further. Given the most recent spat between Brussels and Hungary, I could also imagine that Mr. Orbán might announce his intention to exit the EU, which, if successful, could have severe knock-on effects for the other member-states.

Oh, lest I forget, about that announced eighth (!) round of sanctions the EU is currently mulling: Austro-Covidian Foreign Minister and proud owner of a degenerate pedigree of nobility (ahem) Schallenberg announced the following yesterday (via RT):

Vienna will say an emphatic ‘no’ to proposals of a ban on Russian natural gas imports, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on Thursday, noting that the already adopted EU sanctions packages are comprehensive and may require clarification.

‘I have said in the past that we should discuss this [possible tightening of sanctions] in an appropriate way, namely behind closed doors, but yes – we have already adopted six large-scale sanctions packages, and now we can think about closing the loopholes’, the FM told [Austrian state broadcaster] ORF while answering a question on whether Vienna’s position has changed regarding the possible strengthening of sanctions against Russia. Schallenberg added that ‘in case of further steps, primarily in the energy sector, with regard to gas, there will be a clear no from Austria.’

You see, it’s not ‘just’ Hungary that’s balking at the prospect of further sanctions.

I’d suspect the end of ‘unity’ to arrive well before Christmas.