More than 20,000 people rallied on Saturday in Vienna against Austria’s new conservative-far right coalition, over its hard-line stances on immigration and social policy, police said.
Marchers descended on a central district housing several ministries to make known the views of a protesters’ “New Year welcome committee” for the administration of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who became the world’s youngest leader at 31 last month.
Marchers took to the streets to protest against the inclusion in the government of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), which holds six cabinet portfolios, including that of the vice-chancellor, party leader Heinz-Christian Strache.
People of all ages, including families, answered the call of left-wing and anti-racist groups, marching in a long procession through the centre of the Austrian capital.
The march came to an end at the former imperial Hofburg palace, where crowds gathered, illuminating the darkness with the light of thousands of smartphones.
On a visit to France on Friday Kurz, whose country has the only government in Western Europe to feature the far right, appealed for understanding and insisted his team was “pro-European.”
But Saturday’s marchers brandished slogans drawing parallels with the 1938 annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, one reading “those who tolerate Kurz and Strache would have applauded 1938.”
Other placards read “Resistance” and “Do not let the Nazis govern.”
The coalition is the second time Austria has seen the FPÖ, formed by former Nazis in the 1950s, enter the government fold after a first spell in 2000-2005. That first occasion brought widespread international opprobrium and a swathe of demonstrations at home.
