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CLIMATE CRISIS

Climate activists to stop Vienna traffic every morning for weeks

Austria's capital Vienna will see "at least" three weeks of climate protests by the environmental protest group Last Generation. Here's what you need to know.

Climate activists to stop Vienna traffic every morning for weeks
The Last Generation group protests walking on Vienna's Ringstrasse (photo: Letzte Generation Österreich)

Last Generation activists plan to disrupt early morning traffic at critical points in Vienna, starting on Tuesday, for at least three weeks in their third wave of action. The group has announced that this will be their most significant action to date.

Typically, the blockades involve protesters sticking themselves to roads in order to create disruption to traffic. The core group has approximately 200 people who have undergone relevant training in how to attach themselves to the road.

However, on Tuesday morning, the protest was contained to a march around the Ringstrasse in the first district of Vienna, with activists walking accompanied by police. They carried signs with messages such as “100km/h is enough,” “no new drilling,” and “Parents for the future.”

On a Twitter post showing the action in the Viennese streets, the group wrote: “We have no choice: the government is putting our public safety at risk. Spain and regions worldwide are drying up. Food prices will go up. A social collapse will be the result. And the simplest immediate measures have still not been implemented.”

Last Generation has been blocking early morning traffic in Austrian cities for months to draw attention to the climate crisis’s consequences and urge government officials to take action. The group is calling for a ban on new oil and gas drilling and a 100 km/h speed limit on highways, among other demands.

READ ALSO: Is Austria doing enough to protect children from the climate crisis?

They plan “at least” three weeks of protest in the Austrian capital this time, but the exact time (though marches and blockades usually happen in the early morning) and location are kept secret to avoid previous mobilisation by the police, according to the group.

Who are the climate protesters?

Last Generation is a climate activist group that sees itself as the last generation with the opportunity to prevent severe consequences of climate change.

They refer to themselves as a “nonviolent resistance movement” and often employ roadblocks that involve members glueing themselves to roads in order to disrupt traffic, a tactic referred to as a “sticky wave” or “Klebe-Welle” – they are known in Austria as the “klimakleber”.

READ MORE: Who are the climate protesters disrupting traffic in Vienna – and why?

Their blockades in January led to 52 arrests and over 200 police reports as traffic was disrupted in city centres. Similar protests have occurred in other cities, such as Linz, Klagenfurt, Innsbruck, and Graz, since the beginning of the year.

The group made headlines in November when they threw black liquid on a Klimt painting at the Leopold Museum in Vienna.

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CRIME

Are there ‘young gangs’ forming in Vienna?

If you read Austrian tabloid media, Vienna has a 'gang' problem, with several crimes committed by groups of young people in recent months. But is that true?

Are there 'young gangs' forming in Vienna?

Austrian tabloid media jumps on such stories: a group of teenage girls breaking into cars in Linz or vandalism and robberies committed by young people in Vienna. Particularly in the capital, it seems that there was a rise in crimes committed by groups of young people. But does that mean that Vienna has a gang problem?

According to the newspaper daily Der Standard, the Vienna Provincial Police Directorate (LPD) repeatedly states that the much-cited youth gangs do not exist but that there is “an increase in young people appearing in groups and committing offences”.  

What does that mean, and what is the difference between “young people appearing in groups and committing offences” and gangs?

According to the police: “The term gang is commonly used in everyday language – without a precise definition in this context. In criminal law, however, the term is clearly defined. From a criminal law perspective, a gang is an organised, hierarchically structured group of people intent on committing offences on an ongoing basis.”

READ ALSO: Which crimes are on the rise in Austria?

According to the police, they are dealing with “groups that come together spontaneously” and are not “hierarchically organised.” These groups mostly commit “thefts or minor robberies” but are not criminal organisations. 

So, technically, Vienna does not have a “youth gang” problem, but it does have an increase in young people in groups committing crimes – though the police didn’t share official numbers.

A recent Kurier report stated that the number of crimes committed by young people and children under the age of 14 has doubled in the last ten years.

At the same time, there has only been a slight increase among young people over the age of 14 and even a decrease among young adults. The main crimes committed by young people and adolescents are theft, damage to property, assault, burglary and dangerous threats.

Christian Holzhacker, Head of Education at the Association of Viennese Youth Centers, told Der Standard that it is important not to “stigmatise” an age group and that the word gang is often used in an “inflationary way”. He points out that in relation to the size of the Viennese population, the number of minors committing crimes is small, even if it is increasing.

He also highlighted that stigmatising regions or groups of young people who get together in public spaces is not the answer. “If you want to fight crime, you have to look at the realities of the lives of the people who have committed crimes,” he said.

READ ALSO: Is Vienna a safe city to visit?

What are the police doing about the crime?

Austria’s federal criminal police office has gathered a new special task force to combat youth crime (EJK). According to the Ministry of the Interior, the idea is to recognise the new phenomenon and combat youth gangs in Austria. 

The task force is set to carry out checks in public spaces, particularly in urban areas and “potential hotspots”, Kurier reported.

The task force also set up a “panel of experts” to suggest how parents can be more responsible, how children’s use of social media and cell phones can be improved, and how the asylum system can better accommodate young migrants.

However, Dieter Csefan, head of the task force, told Die Presse that most young offenders were born in Austria.

“There are unaccompanied minors, but the young people we meet in the groups and gangs usually have parents. And the prolific offenders often come from a normal home. They can also be native Austrians. So it’s not always just Afghans or Syrians”, he said.

He also mentioned that “lowering the age of criminal responsibility is one suggestion” to fight crime. Currently, the age is set at 18, but there are discussions and proposals to lower it to twelve. However, “that alone is not necessarily enough”, he added.

READ NEXT: Which parts of Austria have the highest crime rates?

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