“Erdogan Supporters Celebrate Re-election in Vienna: Motorcades and Controversy”

2023-05-29 12:29:00

29.05.2023 14:29

(Akt. 29.05.2023 15:27)

The forbidden wolf salute might also be seen at loud celebrations by Erdogan supporters in Vienna.
©APA, AP

In Vienna, Erdogan’s re-election was loudly celebrated by his fans on Sunday evening.

Numerous fans of the Turkish President celebrated the election victory in Vienna on Sunday evening. Videos on social networks showed how loudly partying Turkish flags were waved at the Reumannplatz in Vienna.

Motorcades and wolf salute

According to a spokesman for the Vienna police, the spontaneous and therefore unannounced rallies from 8.30 p.m. led to motorcades, especially in the area around Reumannplatz, which caused massive traffic disruptions. The situation calmed down once more around 11:30 p.m. due to the intervention of the officials and corresponding reports. According to the police spokesman, potentially endangered objects such as the Ernst Kirchweger House or embassies were also protected and the several hundred revelers were prevented from moving any further. According to the police, there were also ads according to the “symbols law”, since – as at previous events – the forbidden “wolf salute” was shown by individual cheering Erdogan fans.

Erdogan supporters celebrate election victory in Vienna

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FPÖ rumbles once morest SPÖ and ÖVP

The Viennese FPÖ took the rallies as an opportunity to locate a “caliphate” for which the SPÖ and Mayor Michael Ludwig had made favorites, to call on Interior Minister Gerhard Karner to resign and to urge the celebrating Erdogan fans to emigrate to Turkey. For FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl, “the audacity of the fanatics is the result of the weakness of the SPÖ and ÖVP and also the result of decades of neglect on the subject of integration.”

The criticized Minister of the Interior thanked the officials for their “cautious action” and announced investigations by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in connection with the wolf salute: “The democratic constitutional state and its laws must be respected by everyone who lives in our country.”

Rallies in Germany

In Germany, too, Erdogan fans met in a number of cities on Sunday evening for celebrations and motorcades. According to the police, this resulted in traffic obstructions, the ignition of pyrotechnics and provocations between participants in a motorcade and passers-by, which ultimately “also ended in physical altercations”.

Turks in Austria per Erdogan

The Turkish citizens living in Austria also voted in the run-off election with a large majority for incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to provisional figures from the state news agency Anadolu, almost 74 percent of all Turks in Austria entitled to vote gave him their vote. Erdogan once more performed significantly better in Austria than overall.

Voter turnout reached a record level of 57.6 percent in the second round of voting in Austria. Around 108,000 Turkish citizens were entitled to vote in Germany. It was possible to vote in Vienna, Salzburg, Bregenz, Linz, Graz and Innsbruck. After counting more than 91 percent of the ballot boxes, 73.88 percent of the Turks living abroad in Austria voted for the incumbent, 26.12 percent voted for his challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Official figures from the electoral authority on the result of the runoff election in Austria were not yet available. In the first round of the presidential election two weeks ago, almost 72 percent of Austro-Turks voted for Erdogan.

Erdogan performed particularly well in Austria in an international comparison. The result for the incumbent was once more better than at home in other European countries with large Turkish communities, above all Germany, where, according to preliminary results, around 67.4 percent voted for Erdogan, France (66.6 percent), the Netherlands (70, 4 percent) and Belgium (74.9). On the other hand, in countries like Great Britain, Sweden or Switzerland, Kilicdaroglu was ahead.

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