In Vienna, thousands of people demonstrated against the far right

Thursday 09th January 2025 04:06 PM

“Against fascism”: tens of thousands of people demonstrated Thursday in Vienna to “say no to a far-right chancellor”, at a time when FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl is negotiating with the conservatives to form a government.

“I’m afraid for our country, I’m afraid for Europe and in fact for the whole world, because crazy autocrats are coming to power and people are voting for them without realizing that they are digging their own grave,” testifies Elisabeth Helminger, 59, on a crowded square in the heart of the capital. In a wheelchair, she says she wanted to come despite her difficulty getting around.

Read also: In Austria, the far right at the gates of the Chancellery

Start of discussions

The path suddenly cleared at the start of the week for the Freedom Party (FPÖ), which came first in the legislative elections at the end of September, after the failure of discussions started in October by the other political parties to block it.

Green President Alexander Van der Bellen gave Herbert Kickl the mandate to form a majority with the conservatives. Discussions officially started this Thursday.

“We do not want a far-right chancellor and that is why we are here today,” Alexander Pollack, spokesperson for the anti-racism NGO SOS, told AFP. Mitmensch, calling it “a threat to human rights and democracy”.

Fear of a drift

In the crowd estimated at 50,000 by the organizers and half as many by the authorities, others say they fear a drift “in the direction of neighboring Hungary”, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually brought the counter-powers into line.

“It’s almost, quote unquote, a dictatorship. Certainly Orban is elected at the polls but thanks to brainwashing, he is immovable and that is what (Kickl) aspires to. It’s very dangerous,” worries Peter Mayer, 51, employed in an architectural office.

Rallies also took place elsewhere in the country, such as in Salzburg and Graz. Founded in the 1950s by former Nazis, the FPÖ has already participated in power as a minority partner but has never held the chancellery in the contemporary history of this EU member state of nine million. residents.