Tag Archives: Austria

Vienna, Austria in January

This morning/afternoon.

The Austrian government said that it won’t start enforcing a vaccine mandate for most adults in mid-March as it had planned.

Police were to start checking people’s vaccination status with the unjabbed facing fines starting at €600.

Irish/Austrian Human rights lawyer David Langwallner writes:

‘I feared the Austrians or their officialdom had gone mad. That the land of Mozart and Wittgenstein, the epicentre of modern civilisation, had reverted to atavistic, authoritarian tendencies.

‘The decision was against the tide and was bonkers and unenforceable. No national emergency has been declared, thus the Austrian Constitutional Court would have to assess this in terms of a derogation non-applied for in Article 4 and Article 8 of the European Court of Human Rights convention.

‘Many citizens, particularly in southern or western Austria, wish to be non-vaccinated. Since there is or was an emergency, the liberty right was particularly obvious and those who refused to pay fines could have made a challenge. The Austrian Constitutional Court would have intervened and there is nothing like a Hapsburgian judge.

‘The problem is not whether you choose or not to be vaccinated, boosted, double vaccinated or not. The problem is one of a slippery slope to persecute those who exercise a choice and to impose control.

‘If the science were clear,  that endleess 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 of same.

‘Civility has won.’

Austria suspends vaccine mandate before enforcement starts (ABC)

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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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Austria’s chancellor Karl Nehammer

This afternoon.

Via Reuters:

Austria’s conservative government said it was launching a national lottery to encourage holdouts to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, hours before parliament passed legislation that would introduce a national vaccination mandate.

About 72% of the Austrian population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, one of the lowest rates in Western Europe.

Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer said at a press conference of the social democratic opposition leader Pamela Rendi Wagner, with whom the measure was being negotiated, said he wanted there to be a financial reward for getting vaccinated, adding: “We have learned from the past and we have seen that a vaccination lottery is the best possible way to set up such a system.”

It could be you.

Austria adds a lottery to COVID vaccine mandate to win over holdouts (Reuters)

Reuters

This evening.

Austria had hoped to become the first country in Europe to make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory by law on February 1.

That’ll learn him.

Meanwhile…

Austria’s former chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced on Thursday he is retiring from politics. Kurz told reporters in Vienna that the recent birth of his first child had motivated him to take the step. The 35-year-old stepped down as Austria’s leader two months ago amid ongoing corruption allegations.

And him.

Austria’s ex-chancellor Sebastian Kurz retires from politics (EuroNews)

Earlier: Are You Volk Yet?

Previously: Austrian Resistance

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Yesterday.

Vienna, Austria.

Italian state telly visits a makeshift encampment in the centre of Vienna housed by citizens who are anti-vaccine.

Austria declared a full national lockdown on Monday and hopes to become the first country in Europe to make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory by law on February 1.

Previously: No, Vienna

Meanwhile…

Really?

Meanwhile…

A vaccination centre in Vienna, Austria

This morning.

Via Sky News:

Austria is to become the first country in Europe to make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory by law and has announced a full national lockdown from Monday, amid a fourth wave sweeping the continent.

Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said the coronavirus lockdown would run for a “maximum of 20 days”.

He also announced it would be a “requirement to get vaccinated” in Austria from 1 February.

COVID-19: Austria to enter full national lockdown amid record case surge (Sky News)

Pic: Sky

This morning/afternoon.

Via ABC:

Austria took what its leader called the “dramatic” step Monday of implementing a nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated people who haven’t recently had COVID-19, perhaps the most drastic of a string of measures being taken by European governments to get a massive regional resurgence of the coronavirus under control.

The move, which took effect at midnight, prohibits people 12 years old and older who haven’t been vaccinated or recently recovered from leaving their homes except for basic activities such as working, grocery shopping, going for a walk — or getting vaccinated.

Gülp.

Austrian unvaccinated lockdown starts amid COVID resurgence (ABC)

Sky News