Over 800 Identitarians demonstrated in Vienna and were met by left-wing extremists who attacked them, and police, leaving one man hospitalised in a coma.
Over the weekend the hipster-right wing Identitarian youth movement held one of their largest demonstrations so far in the Austrian capital of Vienna.
Die Presse reports that Saturday’s demonstration saw an estimated 800 to 1,000 members of the movement carry banners and wave flags as they marched toward the Westbahnhof train station to protest mass migration, Islamic terrorism and Islamisation. The train station has significance as being the main transit hub for migrants who made their way across Austria toward Germany last year.
The demonstrators were met by around 600 left extremists as they walked toward the Burggasse underground station. The left-wing ‘anti-fascists’, or Antifa, proceeded to attack the hipster right wingers with fireworks, large rocks and other projectiles. Police reacted to the left-wing violence with pepper spray and tear gas in order to stop the attacks against the Identitarians and themselves.
At least two members of the Identitarian group were injured by the counter protesters. One, known as Max, was hit in the head by a large rock and immediately rushed to hospital. Doctors were forced to induce an artificial coma because of the severity of the internal bleeding.
Vienna police released several photos via their Twitter account of the weapons and paraphernalia left at the scene or or found on arrested Antifa extremists. The tweets show a large rock that was thrown at an officer, and another shows a rope with a chain on the end and leftist literature. The second tweet reads: “Everything you need for a peaceful demonstration.”
Police report that 13 people were injured in total, including four policemen. Overall one Identitarian member was arrested on suspicion of infringement of the constitution and seven Antifa extremists were arrested for violent acts.
The media reaction to the protest was condemned by Identitarian member Patrick Lenart who put out a press release saying that the group were looking into bringing charges against state-funded broadcaster ORF who, during their television coverage, referred to the group as neo-Nazis. (It should be noted that in Austria Neo-Nazism, and the promotion of the Nazi ideology is illegal and can carry hefty prison sentences.)
“The defamation of Identitarians as neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists will have consequences,” Mr. Lenart wrote, saying that “patriots suffered massive violence in the exercise of democratic rights,” and they would not allow left-wing politicians and the media to further slander the group.
The rising tide of left-wing extremism across Europe has led to reports of at least 800 attacks on the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the past year.
Left-wing activists have also been responsible for stoking up violence in migrant camps from Idomeni, where they led migrants to battle Macedonian border police, to Calais where they encourage migrants to act violently toward locals and break into ferries bound for the United Kingdom.
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