Thursday demonstrations
As Thursday demonstrations which were from February 2000 weekly in Vienna held protests against the ÖVP - FPÖ - government under Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel called. In terms of content, they were directed primarily against the positions of the FPÖ, which the demonstrators perceived as racist , anti-Semitic and xenophobic , its relationship to National Socialism, but also against efforts to de-democratize (e.g. students, social security agencies), the social cut and the associated intended weakening of Black-blue / orange employee representatives and the conservative attitude of the ÖVP with regard to abortion and homosexuality . Starting from the Federal Chancellery, demonstrations through the city continued on new, unannounced routes every week until the beginning of 2002.
After Kurz took office in December 2017, under the motto “It's Thursday again!” From October 2018 until the end of this government in May 2019, as a result of the Ibiza affair , weekly and repeated Thursday demonstrations took place in Vienna in other cities like Innsbruck and Linz .
prehistory
Austria's domestic political history after the Second World War is shaped by the (often very laboriously achieved) cooperation between the two major parties, the SPÖ and ÖVP , with the Federal Chancellor consistently appointed from 1970 to 1999 by the SPÖ, which has the highest number of votes in all National Council elections . The FPÖ was able to achieve an enormous increase in votes from the mid-1980s, which was largely based on gains from SPÖ voters. The SPÖ then pursued a policy of exclusion towards this party, which has repeatedly been dubbed right-wing extremists .
After the National Council election in 1999 at the beginning of October that year, a mandate distribution was created in which the SPÖ, ÖVP and FPÖ were represented roughly equally and the ÖVP was only the third largest party, just behind the FPÖ. The consequence of this was that purely arithmetically, even with the inclusion of the Greens , no coalition could result with a stable majority in the National Council . The reason for this was the impossible cooperation between the SPÖ and the FPÖ as well as the announcement made by the ÖVP in the previous election campaign that it would go into opposition in the event of a third place . As a result, no government threatened to come about and long fruitless coalition talks between all parties were the result. However, through clever negotiating tactics, the ÖVP succeeded in reaching an agreement with the FPÖ, so that the only result that emerged at the end of January 2000 was that the third-strongest party in the elections would provide the Federal Chancellor and the FPÖ, which had been excluded for a long time, also sit on the government bench would - a constellation that had never existed in the history of Austria. Due to the polarized mood, the political opposing side quickly interpreted this agreement as an ideological togetherness between the ÖVP and the FPÖ and given it the stigmatizing designation “ black-blue ”. Equally motivated and at the same time, the combined party abbreviation "FPÖVP" was created, which had the same effect as "black-blue" to identify the opposition.
Emergence
The resistance to the emerging government coalition was initially evident in actions mainly carried out by young activists. This began on February 1, 2000, when a roof office of the ÖVP party headquarters was occupied and banners were hung over the balustrade of the house. The next day, around 20,000 people responded to a call by the “Democratic Offensive” platform. The demonstration moved to the Ballhausplatz located between the Federal Chancellery and the Presidential Chancellery . Immediately after the rally, there were spontaneous demonstrations in front of the party headquarters of the ÖVP and FPÖ.
On February 4th, the day the new government was sworn in, mass movements that were extremely unusual by Austrian standards took place. Already in the morning hours there were around 10,000 demonstrators on the symbolic Heldenplatz adjacent to Ballhausplatz . Traditionally, a new government to be praised takes a walk from the Federal Chancellery via Ballhausplatz to the Presidential Chancellery in the Hofburg , where the Federal President makes the inauguration. Although the police succeeded in cordoning off Ballhausplatz for this purpose, for security reasons and for the first time in the history of the Second Republic, the only way to get to the presidential office was through an underground corridor. During the inauguration by Federal President Thomas Klestil , demonstrators threw firecrackers , paint bags and other objects at the presidential building and the police forces posted in front of it. A few hours later on was Ringstrasse preferred social ministry of government opponents occupied. In the evening hours of February 4, the Vienna police were deployed several times, including breaking up a demonstration using a water cannon. According to media reports, between 20 and 50 people were injured in the clashes on that day - a record that has hardly ever been seen in the history of the previous period.
The following day, the politically influential Kronen Zeitung published a photo of a masked demonstrator who attacks a row of helmeted and shielded police officers with a branch behind a step gate. A little later, however, this photo turned out to be a montage . The affair surrounding this forgery resulted in a conviction of the Kronen Zeitung by the Austrian press council .
In the next few days there were daily demonstrations in Vienna, some of which were more than 20,000 people. The movement against the “black and blue” government reached a climax on Saturday, February 19, when between 150,000 (police estimate) and 300,000 people (according to the organizers) at a large rally entitled “Resistance to black and blue, against racism and welfare cuts ”. At this, a subsequent Thursday was announced as a further date for a large rally and it was announced that the demonstration would not be stopped until the government had resigned.
In the following weeks, the number of participants in the numerous demonstrations fell to less than 1000 in some cases, which is why Thursday more and more emerged as a weekly demonstration day against the federal government, which meanwhile also the other 14 EU member states have bilateral relations on government and government had restricted diplomatic level to the bare minimum (see " EU-XIV sanctions against Austria "). In addition, a series of DJ events took place every Saturday under the ironic title of “Folk Dance”. Up to the end of March, up to 4,000 people marched through Vienna under the motto “Don't Stop to Resist, Stop FPÖVP” - accompanied by music from sound systems created by DJs .
course
On February 24, 2000, about 12,000 people took part in the first Thursday demonstration that can be described as such. In March the number of participants ranged between 5,000 and 15,000 people. Incidentally, there were still smaller protests and rallies against the federal government on all other days of the week.
The following month, up to 3,000 people continued to take part in the Thursday demonstrations. Only at the end of April did the number of rallies decrease on other days of the week. In the following months the number of participants leveled off at an average of 1,000 people. Among other things, spectacular actions took place on June 15, when the demonstrators first stormed the containers belonging to an art project by the director and action artist Christoph Schlingensief in front of the Vienna State Opera in order to free the " asylum seekers " inside . Only a few minutes later the demonstrators broke into the nearby Marriott Hotel, where a panel discussion with Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser (then FPÖ) was taking place. An appearance by Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel planned there shortly afterwards was prevented by the demonstrators.
In the summer the number of participants sometimes fell below the 1000 mark, in the autumn the level leveled off again just above it. In December of that year there were still an average of 500 participants in the weekly demonstrations. In the course of time, a cultural framework program in the form of a "resistance reading" was established before the start of the Thursday demonstrations. Prominent speakers included Hermes Phettberg , Marlene Streeruwitz and Elfriede Jelinek, who later won the Nobel Prize for Literature .
In 2001 the number of participants stagnated, but demonstrations against the federal government continued on a weekly basis. Between 200 and 600 people still took part in the Thursday demonstrations. While the Saturday “folk dance” events slowly came to an end, a reading continued to take place before every Thursday demonstration.
After in December 2001, in some cases just over 100 participants in the demonstrations against the government, a weekly " Speakers Corner " against black and blue was held at Ballhausplatz from the beginning of 2003 instead of the weekly demonstration . In February 2002 around 2500 people took part in a demonstration on the occasion of the swearing in of the black and blue government two years ago.
Demonstrations against the government, which has been made up of the ÖVP and FPÖ (from 2005 BZÖ ) since 2000, continued to take place only on all the anniversaries of the inauguration from mid-2003 and in 2005 on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the first Thursday demonstration . With the formation of a new grand coalition between the SPÖ and ÖVP in January 2007 and its continuation until 2017, the motive for continued existence was withdrawn from the regular rallies. The last Thursday demonstration took place on February 9, 2006 with over 400 participants on the occasion of its sixth anniversary.
Thursday demonstrations from 2018
On October 4, 2018, the weekly protest, now against the ÖVP-FPÖ coalition ( Bundesregierung Kurz I ), which was in office from the end of 2017 to the end of May 2019, was resumed. According to the organizers, around 20,000 demonstrators gathered on October 4, 2018, another Thursday, on Vienna's Ballhausplatz. According to the executive, 3,000 to 4,000 people took part. With the motto “It's Thursday again!” The tradition of protest against black and blue at the beginning of the 2000s is linked. Until further notice, the Thursday demonstrations will take you through Vienna on various routes every week. Thursday demonstrations are also held regularly in other Austrian cities. The government came to an end with the Ibiza affair in May 2019. The first demonstration after the vote of no confidence in the entire federal government was accompanied by a live performance by the Vengaboys , including the song "We're going to Ibiza".
evaluation
The Thursday demonstrations were jokingly referred to by those involved and sympathizers as the “Viennese hiking days”, which at the same time as the “folk dance” events indicate the motif “movement”. The term “hiking day” comes from the school sector and its use in this context is explained by the fact that in this demonstration series a different, previously unknown path was always taken. This fun moment is interpreted as an expression of youthful living conditions, especially since the Thursday demonstrations were primarily carried out by young people.
The ideological affiliation of the expressions “Thursday demonstration”, “black-blue” and “FPÖVP” is evident in their common long existence. The series of demonstrations existed in principle as long as there was the appropriate coalition. The expression "FPÖVP" had to be given up after the change of coalition partner between the FPÖ and the BZÖ, but after the formation of a new SPÖ-ÖVP coalition in January 2007 it lived on for a while in the form of "SPÖVP" and was adopted by its opponents Coalition used in a derogatory sense, so in part also by those against whom "FPÖVP" was originally directed.
literature
- Frederick Baker, Elisabeth Boyer: Viennese hiking days. Wieser, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-85129-381-9 .
- Robert Foltin : And we are still moving: Social movements in Austria. Edition Grundrisse, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-9501925-0-6 .
- Keywords Thursday demonstration , FPÖVP and black-and-blue , in: Oswald Panagl , Peter Gerlich (ed.): Dictionary of Political Language in Austria , Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 3-209-05952-7 .
Web links
- www.tatblatt.net Detailed chronology of the protests.
- www.no-racism.net Several articles on the resistance against the black and blue government.
- www.martinkrenn.net Internationally shown photo exhibition, which shows the Thursday demonstrations from the point of view of 26 demo participants.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thursday demo: "Basti, ciao, ciao, ciao" at Ballhausplatz. In: derstandard.at . October 4, 2018, accessed March 31, 2019.
- ↑ There are still demonstrations in Innsbruck on Thursdays. In: Tyrolean daily newspaper . March 30, 2019, accessed March 31, 2019 .
- ↑ https://twitter.com/vengaboys/status/1134194840974086149
- ↑ Keyword Thursday demonstration, in Oswald Panagl / PeterGerlich (eds.): Dictionary of political language in Austria, Vienna 2007.
- ↑ keyword FPÖVP in: Panagl / Gerlich of 2007.