Vienna, Austria last Christmas

This afternoon.

Via CNN:

Austria became the first country in Europe to introduce a national Covid-19 vaccine mandate for adults on Friday after President Alexander Van der Bellen signed it into law.

Austria’s sweeping measures will see those without a vaccine certificate or an exemption potentially slapped with initial fines of 600 euros. Checks to see if the mandate is being adhered to begin from March 15.

Pregnant people and those who cannot be vaccinated without endangering their health are exempt from the law, according to the Austrian Health Ministry’s website.

The exemption also applies to people who recently caught Covid-19, and lasts 180 days from the date they received their first positive PCR Covid-19 test.

The new law will last until January 31, 2024 and could see unvaccinated people face a maximum fine of 3,600 euros ( up to four times a year if they are not on a vaccine register by their assigned vaccination date.

Austria signs into law strict Covid-19 vaccine mandate (CNN)

Meanwhile…

Irish/Austrian human rights lawyer David Langwallner (above) writes:

1. The new initiative of the Austrian government to introduce fines for the unvaccinated to be introduced gradually is against the tide and is bonkers, unenforceable and has the distinct sense of a façade. Thus no compulsory vaccinations, as hitherto indicated, merely fines. But courts will be cluttered with such cases, and will they win? And what if you do not pay the fine?

2. No national emergency has been declared in Austria, thus the Austrian Constitutional Court will have to assess this in terms of a derogation non-applied for in Article 4 (Liberty) and Article 8 (Privacy) terms of the Austrian constitution. Since there is no emergency, the liberty right is particularly obvious and those who refuse to pay fines can invoke same and the Austrian Constitutional Court and lower courts should and will act accordingly to uphold their objections. Thus, the façade.

3. The problem is not whether you choose to be vaccinated, boosted, double vaccinated or not. The problem is one of a slippery slope to persecute those who exercise a choice and the precedent it sets for other measures. The problem is the authoritarian removal of legitimate choice.

4. If the science were clear that endless futuristic drugs would, for example, control Omicron then public health considerations in terms of legal doctrines such as proportionality would be apt but there is no clear evidence that warrants this conclusion.

5. The law has further the look of unrealistic enforceability in the extension till 2024 in the absence of a defined emergency which will lead to ongoing review by the courts.

6. Austrian and Australia should be compared to their former colonial or semi-colonial forebearers, though neither might like the comparison, the UK and Germany both of whom are not prepared to go this far. The best boy in the extremist class is also a post-colonial Irish hangover. The good burghers of the constitutional court will react accordingly, I am hopeful.

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