Vienna, On the sidelines of the rainbow parade in the city center, the “march for the family”:
Report Muhammad Amir Siddique Vienna Austria.
On the sidelines of the rainbow parade on Saturday in the city center, the “march for the family” and a counter-demonstration clashed. Now there is criticism from the Vienna Greens of the police operation, in which pepper spray was used and a policewoman was injured. As is traditional on the day of the Rainbow Parade, the rightly announced “March for the Family” by Christian Pride opponents took place again this year. Even before the rally headed towards the final rally on Ballhausplatz, a counter-demonstration formed on Stephansplatz. The “march” participants – according to police spokesman Markus Dittrich, the number was in the lower three-digit range – faced about as many counter-demonstrators. As a result, they did not adhere to the protective area between the two groups, the police said on Sunday. In order
to prevent the two groups from meeting, the participants in the unreported rally were asked to go behind a barrier. However, there was resistance for a short time, according to the Vienna police. Pepper spray was also used for a short time.”In order to enforce this measure, the irritant gas spray was occasionally used as a milder means compared to other, more invasive
measures,” says a police statement. A glass bottle also flew in the direction of the police, an officer suffered a laceration and was unable to continue working. Green MPs: “Protester knocked over”. Criticism of the “disproportionate” police action came on Sunday from Viktoria Spielmann, member of the state parliament and women’s rights spokeswoman for the Greens in Vienna. In the “Vienna Today” interview, she speaks of a heated atmosphere among the officials. Spielmann again called for the implementation of the independent police complaints office agreement
in the coalition agreement. Well, I was just there live and saw the police approach us, where they had just pushed away the counter-demonstration, and then a police officer approached us and knocked over a demonstrator in front of my eyes, so pushed away, she’s behind fallen behind, something really could have happened. My colleague Georg Bürstmayer from the National Council and I intervened and luckily were able to prevent further escalation.”Police are investigating the use of pepper spray. Cell phone videos of police use of pepper spray also circulated on social networks on Saturday. A police officer in sunglasses can be seen standing behind his colleagues, who are forming a barrier to the
counter-demonstrators. Then he sprayed pepper spray over the heads of his colleagues for a few seconds at the demonstrators. A second officer then takes the same action. According to the police, a police officer was also sprayed during the operation. Whether the operation was ordered or not will be clarified in the course of the legality check, the police said on Sunday to “Vienna Today”: “The spontaneous rally exerted pressure here. Attempts have been made to get to the legitimately reported rally. Of course, this had to be prevented by the police. Here, of course, an attempt was made to push the rally participants away, and pepper spray was then used in the course of this. As with any weapon use,
it is checked afterwards whether this was also lawful, ”said police spokesman Dittrich . According to the police report, most of the 30 reports filed by the police over the course of the entire operation are related to the “March for the Family” and the counter-demonstration on Stephansplatz. According to Dittrich, a total of 24 criminal offenses and six administrative offenses were reported. According to the police, there were only a few incidents relevant to the police. The Rainbow Parade itself was consistently peaceful. Yesterday’s events show more and more that Christoph Wiederkehr’s idea (NEOS, note) and the actual reality diverge greatly,” said ÖVP state party chairman Karl Mahrer in a broadcast on Sunday. The deputy mayor of Vienna dreams of respect and tolerance, but the balance sheet looks very different.
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