One or the other Corona demo is likely to cause a crowd again on New Year’s Eve with official approval in various inner cities in Austria. In the end, the traditional New Year’s Eve runs were not allowed. In addition to Graz or Innsbruck, the traditional fun run in Linz at the turn of the year had to be canceled. Due to the new amendment to the Covid-19 regulation that came into force on Monday, gatherings of more than 25 people outdoors without assigned seats are no longer allowed. This not only means the end for all fun runs, other competitions now also have to be canceled at short notice.
“We grudgingly note that our run is not allowed, although it looked good in the end,” says Peter Weinzierl, chairman of the New Year’s Eve run organizer TriRun Linz. To be on the safe side, the field of participants has already been limited to 300 active participants, and the 2G rule has been anchored in the tender as a basic requirement for a start. None of that helped.
It is curious that 300 healthy and vaccinated people are not allowed to walk a few kilometers through Linz in the fresh air on Friday, but at the same time hundreds of allegedly unvaccinated “walkers” can loudly demonstrate against the government’s corona measures, although the right to demonstrate is of course an important democratic one Instrument is. Weinzierl: “The question of proportionality arises. These refusals are a shame, especially because club life suffers from them.”
Fortunately, the financial damage is limited. In the meantime they have stopped printing medals or posters with the year so that all of this does not have to be disposed of after a rejection. In addition to hardship, a pandemic also makes people inventive.
Nothing works in Gosau either
The frustration is also great in Gosau, where yesterday the traditional Zwieselalm ascent of the ski tourers planned for tomorrow had to be canceled. “In addition to the financial damage for the club’s coffers, this rejection primarily expresses the volunteer spirit, because if, despite all the effort and foresight, you are thrown off the rails again and again by short-term regulations, then the fire will go out at some point,” says Karl Posch. the section head of ASKÖ Raiffeisen Gosau. On the Zwieselalm ascent tomorrow there would have been 120 active participants. Here, too, the organizer has accepted a participant limit and the strict 2G rule.
The search for a loophole in the regulation – individual starts or starts in groups of 25 – was given up yesterday. The BH Gmunden would have pointed out that there is no alternative to cancellation. Future regional events planned by sports clubs are also shaky. Posch sees this as a big problem for the club. “The lack of predictability kills voluntary sport.”
Source: Nachrichten
