Fürst: “Ban on demonstrations critical of the government is an attack on citizens’ fundamental rights!”

“Even if we libertarians have no connection or close relationship with either of these two demonstrations: banning demonstrations critical of the government is a procedure that is otherwise only known from authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. The system’s fear of its own population obviously no longer knows any limits when it has to resort to such anti-democratic means,” condemned FPÖ constitutional spokeswoman NAbg today. Dr. Susanne Fürst described the ban on two demonstrations for peace and neutrality planned for Saturday by the Vienna State Police Directorate as an “attack on the fundamental right to freedom of demonstration and assembly”.

The LPD Vienna’s justification for banning the two demonstrations with reference to the right to freedom of work and the flow of traffic in the city center is “flimsy and scandalous double standards”: “With the climate extremists who have caused arbitrary traffic jams for months with their blockade actions and caused incredible economic damage, the police were probably watching at the behest of above and even cooperated with the blockers through agreements, which we libertarians always pointed out have. In 2016, leftists were also allowed to demonstrate against deportations on the first Saturday in Advent or against the ÖVP-FPÖ federal government on the third Saturday in Advent in 2018. All demonstrations or rallies must be treated equally by the authorities, regardless of whether you like their content or not. It is therefore downright significant that, with a Vienna State Police President close to the SPÖ and an ÖVP Interior Minister, the ban on these anti-government demonstrations is in the hands of the very parties that are currently building a losing coalition!”

The aim of the authorities must be to guarantee the exercise of the right to freedom of demonstration and assembly and to ensure that these can take place calmly and orderly. “With this obviously arbitrary ban, you are doing exactly the opposite and creating a state of disorder. If this results in chaos, then those responsible for the ban will also be responsible for that,” said Fürst, who also emphasized the importance of a shopping Saturday for the shops in Vienna’s city center, which will largely be the case even if there is the appropriate political will could be unaffected. In any case, the right to freedom of demonstration and assembly is a central pillar of every democratic constitutional state, regardless of what opinions and content citizens want to express within the framework of existing laws: “This fundamental right must also apply if the government does not like the concerns . There must be no distinction between meetings that are acceptable in terms of content and those that are not acceptable!”