Police at MEGA demo in Vienna: Messer and pyrotechnics secured!

Police at MEGA demo in Vienna: Messer and pyrotechnics secured!

On Saturday, November 30, 2024, several hundred people gathered at Heldenplatz in Vienna to protest the possibility of a new government coalition from the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS. This demonstration was organized by the group "Fair Thinker", which had previously been prohibited on November 9. The organizers initially expected up to 1.4 million participants, but in fact the participation was much lower, which was particularly noticeable when the police prohibited the demo in advance to protect the flow of traffic and the shops in the city center, such as kosmo.at reported.

The controls at Heldenplatz included ensuring several knives and a shotgun found during the person controls. In addition to these security -relevant finds, there was also a counter -rally on Schwarzenbergplatz, in which pyrotechnic objects were confiscated. Although the police were on site with a large contingent, there were spontaneous meetings around 3 p.m. that had to dissolve the officials. Despite a ban on marching the Wiener Ring, some participants continued after the end of the official rally and formed other groups, which led to blockages that also had to be dissolved by the police, such as Meinbezirk.at reported.

police operation and traffic restrictions

The police had provided water cannons before the start of the event and announced that they were present with enough strength. While the Situation was initially without special incidents, this changed quickly when the new protest moves moved to the ring road, which led to traffic disabilities. An official spokesman emphasized that the maintenance of public order had top priority. The political situation, in particular the criticism of Federal President Alexander van der Bellen, who had not commissioned the FPÖ with government negotiations, was a central point of the protests that focused on the government and in particular the painted ring hike.