Demonstrators hold flags and placards as they march to protest against the COVID 19 restrictions and mandatory vaccination in Vienna, Austria on December 4, 2021. VIENNA, Dec 4, Reuters - Thousands marched through Vienna on Saturday to protest against restrictions on public life designed to curb the coronaviruses epidemic.
Faced with surging daily infections last month, the government made Austria the first country in Western Europe to impose a lockdown and made it mandatory from February.
People carried signs saying: I will decide myself Make Austria Great Again and New Elections - a nod to the political turmoil seen within two months by three chancellors. Around 1,200 police officers were deployed to handle scattered protests that were supposed to join a march on the Ring boulevard in central Vienna. The police said they would remind marchers to wear masks and charge people who don't.
The parliamentary committee approved doubling the length of the lockdown to 20 days, which is the longest it will last. Austria, a country of 8.9 million people, has reported more than 1.2 million coronaviruses and more than 12,000 COVID 19 related deaths since the pandemic began last year.
Since the lockdown, new cases have fallen, which has made exceptions for protests.