An estimated 600 patriots marched on the Austrian border with Slovenia yesterday to protest the lack of border controls, and demand the government start building a fence.
The group, which chanted slogans coined by the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) movement in Dresden was escorted by police from the railhead at Spielfeld to the very border with Slovenia.
Police broke up a small counter-demonstration of some 20 anti-borders, pro-migration individuals as the main protest marched to ensure they had a clean run. Determined the protesters were not to meet with the object of their march, 80 army and privately owned buses, and two specially chartered trains were brought into the Spielfeld area to take migrants away before the demonstration could get under-way.
Shouting slogans calling for the resignation of the Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann, who recently compared Hungary’s border fence to Nazism, the group of 5-600 protesters walked two kilometres to the border. There, they called for the government to start work on a fence to protect Austria immediately, and to help those fleeing from conflicts closer to their homes, rather than inviting them into the heart of Europe, reports Nachrichten.at.
Austrians march to the border to demand a fence / AFP PHOTO / JURE MAKOVEC
Many of those marching were wearing or carrying signs and logos identifying themselves as part of the Identerian movement. Presently breaking into the mainstream, Identarianism is a movement within the European new right which holds apparently strong appeal for young, middle class activists.
Active in Austria, Germany, Italy, and France as well as other European countries, the movement advocates appreciation and preservation of distinct European cultural and ethnic groups, as well as traditional conservative values.
Individuals associated with the movement have been increasingly visible during the European migrant crisis, which Identarian banners appearing at PEGIDA marches, organising protests in Austria, and even sending a team of volunteers to the Hungarian border to perform voluntary maintenance work on the European border fence.
The idea of actually building a fence around the southern Austrian border has suddenly developed from the desire of the right-wing fringe to mainstream, as politicians in the country have faced up to reality and come to understand the utility of the project. Breitbart London reported this week that construction would begin soon, but no concrete dates have been given, nor specific plans.
To save face, the Austrian government — which has long condemned the idea of erecting a fence — has refused to call it as such, referring to the project instead as a “barrier” or even more tortuously, a “security construction”. Austria’s interior minister has even gone on record about her distaste of the word, telling journalists “if it is possible to avoid the word ‘fence’ from a technical point of view, then that’s fine by me”.
Since Hungary completed the border fence with Croatia and Serbia, Slovenia has become the main point of entry for migrants taking the Balkan route into Europe, as they move up the Dalmatian coast, through Austria, and onwards to Germany. Breitbart London reported on the extraordinary scenes seen on the Croatia-Slovenia border last week, as Croatian police worked to rid the country of transitory migrants as quickly as possible.
Bringing a trainload of thousands very nearly to the Slovenia border by cover of night, police led a column of people away from the station and down to the river, where the illegals could travel onto Slovenia by an unprotected border crossing.
Unfortunately for the Croatian police conducting the clandestine move, every moment of the operation was caught on heat-sensitive camera by a Slovenian police helicopter. Slovenia has now deployed the army and armoured personnel carriers to the border to help control the flow of migrants north.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.