The initiative started with a “frustration posting from me on Twitter”, said the Innsbruck Roman Scamoni at a press conference. “I noticed: The polarization in society also does something to me – and nothing good.” Therefore he wrote why there is actually no sign of togetherness and remembrance of the deceased. Daniel Landau, brother of Caritas President Michael Landau, reported from Vienna and the matter got going.
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According to initiator Daniel Landau, this quiet sea of lights, set for only ten minutes, is intended to show a different picture of Austria under the motto #YesWeCare: “We don’t want to leave the images of aggression in Vienna and the provincial capitals alone. We believe that one can very large majority of people care for one another. ” Therefore, the campaign is also intended as a “thank you” to all those who maintained the community during this corona pandemic.
- ZIB 1: ORF reporter Saskia Veenenbos was in downtown Vienna and reported on the memorial event.
Supported by the president
These are “those in the health service, in the care, in the security and in the social work”. Landau said: “The light should also remind us that more than 13,000 people have now died and many more are sick with Covid-19. So it is a sympathy for the suffering of far too many people.”
The sea of lights was also supported by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen. The head of state did not attend the commemoration personally, but put a candle in a window of the Hofburg as a token of his sympathy. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn also lit a candle in the window of the Archbishop’s Palace. Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (VP) saw the meeting on the Ring as an opportunity to put “what we have in common before what separates us”.
- Video: More than 30,000 people at Lichtermeer on Vienna’s Ringstrasse
Fairy lights of the anti-vaccination groups
There were also fairy lights in Graz, Amstetten and Linz. In the state capital, however, the anti-vaccination party MFG is organizing a chain of lights. The party also appeared as the organizer of numerous large corona demos, most recently on Saturday in Vienna, where demonstrators broke police barriers (see also report below). “Our chain of lights is carried out in silence, renouncing any particular political statements, in the place of which the light appears as a symbol of a comprehensive message of peace,” said the MFG. One wants to set an example against the division in the country – whether vaccinated or unvaccinated.
Source: Nachrichten
