Graz is the beginning – up to 900 participants were counted. Women, men and children gathered in Vienna around 11.30 a.m. to move through the capital from noon.
The Viennese demo train from “Fridays for Future” started moving shortly after 12.30 p.m. and marched across the Ring to the City Hall. There is currently a longer stop in front of the ÖVP headquarters. Again and again the chants resound: “We are here, we are loud because you are stealing our future.” In the sea of posters one can read, for example: “Long-haul flights only for insects” or “Save the world! Now!”
Under the motto “Tomorrow is too late”, the young people are on the twelfth global climate strike by “Fridays For Future” (FFF). In Austria, the protest first started in Graz. The aim of the participants is to put pressure on politicians to fight the climate crisis more effectively. In Vienna, women, men and children gathered around 11.30 a.m., Salzburg completed the demo trains at 3 p.m. from the main station.
“/> “Together behind the science.” APA/Tobias Steinmaurer
The climate strikes in Austria are reported in a total of nine places. In Graz, 700 to 900 participants took part on Friday, according to the emergency services. They had gathered at 10:00 a.m. at Freiheitsplatz and then went via Hofgasse, Burgring and Opernring and Herrengasse via Hauptplatz to Lendkai and Keplerstraße back to Freedom Square. The demonstrators once again loudly let it be known: “We are here, we are loud because our future is being stolen.” Incidentally, the Styrian Education Directorate had declared the global climate strike to be a school-related event, which meant that many schoolchildren could also take part. FPÖ education spokesman and NAbg. Hermann Brückl considered this decision exaggerated: “The pupils should learn how to deal with flora and fauna at school and the teachers should make the young people more aware of and inspire them to protect nature and the environment.”
Route via the party headquarters of the ÖVP and the Greens
The route in Vienna started from Maria-Theresien-Platz in the direction of the party headquarters of the ÖVP and the Greens, and then continued to Ballhausplatz. In particular, the climate protection law, which has been outstanding for around 800 days, is a concern for all local activists. “It’s much too hot, it’s twelve degrees in Vienna,” said one speech, “down with the heat, up for climate protection,” chanted the participants. “The Austrian automobile club ÖAMTC warned road users in Vienna in advance that traffic jams are to be expected in the city center from 12.30 p.m. due to the large-scale demonstration. The march then started on time, “we are here, we are loud, because you are stealing our future ” was the slogan here too.
Not only the young generation is fighting the climate crisis: “I’m a grandmother and I’m fighting for my grandchildren here,” said a woman in Bregenz. Among the demonstrators in the far west there were also initiatives against Vorarlberg transport projects, such as the S18 and the tunnel spider, as well as supporters of the traffic turnaround. The rally in front of the country house then began about 15 minutes late, the police counted 400 to 500 participants in an initial estimate.
Greenpeace: “End the raid on oil”
In the course of the protest march in Austria, Greenpeace is calling on the government to put an end to “the raid on new oil and gas sources by fossil companies”. Because in this country too, new licenses are constantly being issued. In order to credibly pursue the goal of climate neutrality by 2040, a strong law is finally needed that paves the way out of fossil dependence.
Global 2000 announced that it would be represented in the global climate strike in Vienna and Klagenfurt and called on the population to set an example together. “We have to be on the streets for another year because our governments are still not implementing real climate protection. We have a few blockers to thank for this, who are constantly torpedoing important laws and preventing the exit from dirty gas and oil,” said Agnes Zauner, Managing Director quoted by the NGO.
Together with the youth network Generation Earth, WWF Austria pointed out the need to protect valuable ecosystems in the fight against the climate crisis: “We have to protect the few remaining natural areas and, where possible, restore destroyed nature – this is the only way we have a chance to fight the climate crisis and its consequences contained,” says Thomas Zehetner, climate spokesman at WWF Austria.
Up to 900 participants in Graz
According to the emergency services, 700 to 900 participants took part in the “Fridays For Future” climate strike in Graz on Friday. They had gathered at 10:00 a.m. at Freiheitsplatz and then went via Hofgasse, Burgring and Opernring and Herrengasse via Hauptplatz to Lendkai and Keplerstraße back to Freedom Square.
The demonstrators once again loudly let it be known: “We are here, we are loud because our future is being stolen.” Incidentally, the Styrian Education Directorate had declared the global climate strike to be a school-related event, which meant that many schoolchildren could also take part.
FPÖ education spokesman and NAbg. Hermann Brückl considered this decision exaggerated: “The pupils should learn how to deal with flora and fauna at school and the teachers should make the young people more aware of and inspire them to protect nature and the environment.”
200 strikers and political celebrities in Klagenfurt
In Klagenfurt, the climate strike on Friday attracted more participants than it had in a long time. More than 200 people, by far not all of school age, took part in the rally and the march through the city centre. Among them were federal politicians from the Greens and Neos, who provided support for their Carinthian parties for the state elections next Sunday.
In cold, wet weather, representatives of “Scientists for Future” first gathered in front of the Lindwurm: In their speeches, they urgently warned of the consequences of climate change, or, as Kirsten Von Elverfeldt from the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt put it: “Not before climate change or the climate crisis, but before the climate catastrophe.” The topics addressed dealt with soil sealing as well as the development of roads, which was perceived as wrong, or projects for generating energy from renewable sources that were too sluggish. This also involved orders for action to be given to Carinthian politics.
