Thousands of citizens on Saturday stormed the streets of Vienna, Austria, protesting compulsory wearing of face masks and other coronavirus restrictions imposed by the government. the protesters in their thousands called on the Austrian government to resign following the imposition of restrictions on citizens because of the coronavirus pandemics which has imposed more hardship on the people.
It was gathered that Austria is now going through third coronavirus lockdown which was imposed by the government since the earlier lockdown in March 2020. Accordingly, shops not providing essential services, cinema halls and theatres, sports centres and schools have been shut down by the government. the protesters were said to have targeted their anger on Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, including the media.
Austria citizens expressed doubts over the authenticity of figures of infections and recorded deaths by the Austrian authorities. The protesters vehemently agitated that the Austrian citizens do not want to be like people in china where they will no longer have rights to do anything in their country.
The protesters articulated that the Austrian government is now the disease, and perhaps, causing more harm on citizens than the coronavirus they are claiming to prevent.
The protesters displaying their banners declared: “You’re the disease. We’re the cure”. They were also waving the Austrian flags. Thousands of the protester were without wearing face masks or observing social distancing guidelines. A far-right politician and former deputy chancellor, Heinz-Christian Strache, was identified to be part of the protest.
The Austrian police, however, disclosed that few people were organized by the far-left to stage counter-demonstration. The police estimated the counter-demonstrators to be about 500, who condemned the mask protesters as being “anti-mask lunacy”.
It was highlighted that of the 8.9 million population in Austria, a total 7,053 deaths from Covid-19 were said to be recorded since the outbreak of coronavirus.