2023-08-23 09:27:14
Lower Austria’s governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) again demanded significantly stricter penalties for “climate glue” in a letter to Justice Minister Alma Zadic (Greens) on Wednesday. High penalties are intended to act as a deterrent and “can ultimately prevent other chaotic people from imitating such actions,” the letter said. The ÖVP proposal provides for up to three months in prison if emergency vehicles are blocked and others are endangered.
“The great challenges of climate protection need the broadest possible social acceptance. With their ever more radical climate protests, however, climate advocates are turning ever larger sections of the population against themselves,” explained Mikl-Leitner. It is to be feared that the time around the start of school will be increasingly used for road blockades.
“The activists pay no attention to our rules of social coexistence and our legal provisions. This shows us drastically that the petty fines currently in force have no deterrent effect and that the Austrian legal system is not sufficiently prepared for this form of permanent blockades,” said the state governor. Great Britain, for example, has already reacted to these “unacceptable disruptive actions” and could face imprisonment for several years.
Even before the Lower Austrian state elections in January, Mikl-Leitner had called for tightening and a change in the right of assembly. “While the Ministry of the Interior has now poured my proposal into a draft law, the Ministry of Justice has unfortunately only watched this development on Europe’s streets until now,” the letter said. According to the state governor, criminal liability for “climate glue” actions is “highly overdue if these emergency vehicles block and thereby, even if only negligently, endanger others”.
The recently announced ÖVP proposal stipulates that the head of the assembly must ensure that the passage of emergency vehicles is not obstructed. There is an administrative fine of 720 euros. “Anyone who obstructs the passage of emergency vehicles and thereby endangers the life and health of other people” should expect up to three months in prison. The Greens, as coalition partners in the federal government, were not pleased when the proposal became known.
“The activists are becoming more and more radical in their measures,” said the ÖVP politician. This goes on until “something terrible happens and people in Austria are injured in these protests” or the legislature takes action again.
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