2024-02-28 12:07:31
The plenary session of the National Council on Wednesday morning was accompanied by an action by the “Last Generation”. Around 40 activists tried unsuccessfully to get into the House and then went on a kind of sit-in in front of the building’s entrance. Access for visitors had to be blocked at short notice. The police began carrying the activists away following 10 a.m. The meeting of the National Council takes place undisturbed.
The activists were stopped before they even entered the building, according to the “Last Generation” to the APA. Former ÖSV ski racer Julian Schütter was also among the protesters. By around midday the situation had returned to normal. Only a strong police presence and long queues, which also resulted from the short-term closure, remained. Shortly following 11 a.m., the Vienna State Police Directorate reported on the short message service X (formerly Twitter) that the meeting had been broken up and 41 arrests had been made. “Contrary to media representations, there was no “storming” or attempted violent entry into the parliament building,” the posting also said.
The background to the action is that “the federal government continues to ignore the Climate Council and no party has presented a viable election program,” the movement said. The “Last Generation” is calling on the federal government to include a fundamental right to climate protection in the constitution.
The action only became a topic relatively late in the plenary session itself. FPÖ security spokesman Hannes Amesbauer was outraged that “extremists” wanted to attack parliament and that they only found out regarding it through the media. In return, VP General Secretary Christian Stocker advised him to simply look out the window. When it comes to threats to democracy, Amesbauer should rather look within his own ranks. National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) wants to discuss today’s incident at the next presidential meeting.
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