Academic Ball: Police report a peaceful evening

There were several reported rallies and a protest march in downtown Vienna. According to the executive, all demonstrations were “peaceful and there were no major incidents.” According to the police, there were only a few identity checks.

• Live blog to read: Hofer, Lugner, Sellner and Strache in the Hofburg

There was no appearance of a so-called “black bloc,” the police replied in a broadcast. After the end of a registered stand rally, only several smaller groups tried to move towards the ban area, which the emergency services were able to prevent.

Video: The demonstration ended quietly

Hofer, Strache, Sellner

When asked, the organizer of the ball, the Viennese Freedom Party member Udo Guggenbichler, also spoke of a “beautiful ball” and said that there were more guests than in previous years. He also couldn’t report any incidents and thanked the police, who had around 900 people on duty.

The “Academic Ball” has once again attracted some FPÖ celebrities to the Vienna Hofburg. In addition to the third National Council President Norbert Hofer, there was also his predecessor as party leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, who failed because of the Ibiza video and was expelled from the party. Also among the guests: the Identitarian Martin Sellner and master builder Richard Lugner. FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl stayed away as usual.

Video: Impressions from the Academic Ball

As in the previous year, the opening speech at the event, which critics criticized as an international networking meeting for right-wing extremists, was given by FPÖ Ombudsman Martin Rosenkranz. He criticized the demonstrations against the ball and rejected allegations that it was an international networking meeting for right-wing extremists. Rather, an “incitement meeting” would take place on the streets, he said. “If there’s left-wing riots on the streets today, it’s academic ball again,” said the Ombudsman, referring to the “appreciated ‘offensive against the right’,” as he put it.

Rosenkranz locates “intellectual irritation”

At the same time, Rosenkranz emphasized that it was important that “rallies of politically dissenting people can and do take place.” Here he drew a link to the demonstrations that were directed against the measures to contain the coronavirus and which the FPÖ had always supported: He had “immense pride” that the FPÖ fought against these restrictions. He also identified an “intellectual irritation” among the ball opponents: On the one hand, the ball visitors were described as “national” – “on the other hand, an ‘international networking meeting’ is supposed to take place here today.” This “doesn’t quite fit together”. Rosenkranz also criticized (without naming him) the new rector of the Montanuniversität Leoben, Peter Moser, who is planning to exclude student associations from academic celebrations.

“Left-wing woke madness reigns outside”

The Viennese FPÖ leader Dominik Nepp had few friendly messages for the demonstrators against the ball. He recalled his words from 2023 (“The patriots are sitting in this beautiful ballroom, the idiots are demonstrating outside”). “That hasn’t changed this year either,” said Nepp. But one could also say: “Here is reason, outside there is left-wing woke madness.” And: “We are the patriotic turnaround, the left end is demonstrating outside.”

Also spotted at the ball were Burgenland’s ex-FPÖ boss Johann Tschürtz and FPÖ “veteran” Andreas Mölzer. FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl had already announced his absence in advance. EU leading candidate Harald Vilimsky is also staying away from the event despite the “super election year”.

Hofer came with Richard Lugner

Hofer, who is considered a regular guest at the ball, brought master builder Lugner with him, as he did in 2023, who received lively applause – the two have been friends since the 2016 federal presidential election campaign, said Hofer. The third President of the National Council, who faced the media just a few meters away from Sellner when he arrived, had stated several times during the 2016 presidential election campaign that he wanted nothing to do with people like Sellner. “I think he didn’t come for me – and I didn’t come for him,” he said when asked how he viewed Sellner’s participation in the ball.

Sellner – the former head of the “Identitarian Movement”, which was classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution – recently caused a stir with his participation in a right-wing extremist meeting in Germany on November 25th, at which AfD politicians were also present and at which mass deportations of was spoken to millions of people. In front of the Hofburg, he willingly faced the media for a long time and received significantly more attention than the FPÖ celebrities. He is “right-wing”, he says he is not right-wing extremist.

Strache, who had opened the ball several times in the years before his involuntary departure from the FPÖ leadership, also attracted the attention of the cameras when he arrived. He told journalists that he was there with friends and was looking forward to a “wonderfully elegant” ball. The fact that the event was a networking meeting for right-wing extremists was the opinion of “anti-democrats,” said Strache.

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