“The goal of the opponents of the Corona measures that demonstration trains with several thousand people get into the city center and paralyze business activities, we have thwarted through our tactics,” said State Police President Gerhard Pürstl.
By prohibiting nine meetings, it was said that in the end there was a stand rally with around 2,000 participants on Schwarzenberplatz. Large demonstrations with many thousands of participants, as in the previous weekends, could have been prevented by the prohibitions, the police explained the tactics.
Video recordings show the chaos in downtown Vienna
More than 300 ads
Part of the police tactics was also the fragmentation of the demonstration trains in order to avoid a “grand march”, it said. Ultimately, around 150 to 200 people in the Stephansplatz area and around 400-500 people in the Mariahilfer Straße area came together from different directions, who could be stopped and finally disbanded. The gatherings resulted in seven arrests for resisting state violence or assault, over 300 reports and one injured police officer.
Source: Nachrichten
