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VIENNA

How Vienna wants to restrict restaurants and events to vaccinated people only

Authorities in Vienna have put forward one of Europe's strictest set of rules for entering restaurants, bars, events and nightlife venues.

How Vienna wants to restrict restaurants and events to vaccinated people only
A sign from a bar in the US which only allows vaccinated customers. Vienna has drawn up a similar plan. MICHAEL CIAGLO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

The Vienna state government wants to tighten 3G rules so that only those who have been vaccinated may visit restaurants, attend large events or bars and nightlife venues. 

Under the change, Austria’s 3G rules – which allow for people who have tested negative, been fully vaccinated or contracted the virus in the previous six months – would be wound back to a 1G rule only for the vaccinated in most examples in Vienna. 

Vienna health chief Peter Hacker said unvaccinated people should be banned from sports and leisure facilities, with similar restrictions for bars, restaurants and nightclubs. 

READ MORE: Will Vienna restrict sports, leisure and gastronomy facilities to the vaccinated?

“There is no way of getting around the fact that only vaccinated people should be allowed in” Hacker said.

Hacker said Vienna would have no hesitation adopting different rules to the rest of the country as it had done before.

“If the number of infections increases, and they look likely to increase at the beginning of the school year, then, for example, unvaccinated teachers will teach with masks.”

“Better to make things vaccination only rather than have more closures” Hacker said.

Austria’s Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein said the government was contemplating restricting events to vaccinated people, but said such a move wouldn’t come into effect before October.

“I believe that before an increasingly precarious epidemiological situation in autumn we have to talk about a 1G rule – and I can certainly imagine that in October,” Mückstein told ORF.

This represented a change from what the minister said on Sunday, where Mückstein said it was too early to consider further tightenings. 

Support for Vienna’s plan, although nationwide solution remains preferred option

Thomas Szekeres, President of the Medical Association, said the federal government should “absolutely support” Hacker’s plan.

Hacker also has won support from businesses in the hospitality and gastronomy sector, who have said they would welcome rules which restrict entry to the vaccinated.

Several prominent entrepreneurs in the Vienna bar and restaurant scene told Krone on Monday that they support Hacker’s efforts.

“Peter Hacker’s move is the right announcement that we need now,” said Martin Ho, who owns several bars and restaurants in the Austrian capital.

David Schober, who runs several bars in Vienna, said the proposals outlined by Hacker would prevent further lockdowns.

“The Viennese advance is going in the right direction, which will save us lockdowns.”

Thomas Figlmüller, who runs Vienna’s famous Figlmüller schnitzel restaurant, said the change would be a constructive step in returning to normal.

“Any clear legal requirement that increases the vaccination rate and thus accelerates the return to normal is to be welcomed.”

Vienna Chamber of Commerce chair Peter Dobcak said more needed to be done to inform people about the importance of vaccination, particularly the large immigrant community in Vienna. 

Dobcak said bringing in such a rule too early would have “dramatic consequences” for the hospitality sector in Vienna. 

Several other Austrian states have said they would welcome stricter rules for the unvaccinated, including Styria, Carinthia and Tyrol, however they said a national approach should be pursued.

“That is absolutely the right approach, but it only works if the federal government and the states agree on clear measures together,” said the Styrian health councilor Juliane Bogner-Strauss (ÖVP) on Sunday.

Her counterpart in Carinthia said stricter rules for the unvaccinated were “unavoidable”.

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LIVING IN AUSTRIA

Why internet users in Austria need to be aware of new ‘shitstorm’ ruling

'Shitstorm' is a ubiquitous Anglicism used in Austria referring to public, online and broad harassment people sometimes suffer. And now the country's supreme court is cracking down on perpetrators.

Why internet users in Austria need to be aware of new 'shitstorm' ruling

The word “shitstorm” officially arrived in German dictionaries more than ten years ago,

Its meaning is different from the English version, which according to the Oxford dictionary is used to a describe “a situation marked by violent controversy”.

However in German the Duden Dictionary explains it as a “storm of indignation in an internet communication medium, sometimes accompanied by insulting statements”.

The word is back on Austrian media after a controversial decision of Austria’s Supreme Court, which decided to crack down on instances of online harassment. According to the decision, simply participating in a “shitstorm” can cost an individual plenty. 

According to the court’s decision, it’s sufficient for a victim of a “shitstorm” to identify one person involved. You can “then assert a claim against this person for the entire immaterial damage that the person has suffered as a result of the ‘shitstorm’ “, media lawyer Maria Windhager told broadcaster ORF

READ ALSO: Four reasons Austria is great for women and four reasons why it isn’t

The Supreme Court’s decision means that those who spread hate and fake news online must also accept that they can be prosecuted for it. 

Police officer vilified online

Austria’s highest court dealt with the specific case of a police officer photographed and filmed as he worked in one of the 2021 demonstrations against COVID-19 measures. In a Facebook post, his image was shared with the false accusation that he pulled an 82-year-old man to the ground before arresting and interrogating him. 

According to the police officer, the post had many unpleasant consequences for him. He, his sister, and his mother had been asked about it many times, and even his former post commander had confronted him about it, the report stated. 

He was able to identify several people who shared the post and was able to bring one to court. In an initial trial, the court only awarded him a small portion of the €3,000 compensation he had demanded. 

Austria’s Supreme Court, however, awarded the man a total €3,000. In its reasoning, the Supreme Court stated that a “shitstorm” is defined precisely by the fact that many people participate in it. At the same time, the Supreme Court disagreed with the argument that this makes the individual act of every participant less significant. 

READ ALSO: What to do if you experience online abuse in Austria

Such an argument would have the consequence that the more people who take part in a shitstorm, the “less liable” everyone would be.

“The effect of a shitstorm is all the more violent, the more people participate in it”, according to the Supreme Court. With this, the court said those affected by a “shitstorm” could claim the total damage from a single perpetrator. 

Lawyer Windhager said: “I do believe that the ruling will shake people up and make them think a little more carefully about what they post and, above all, what they share”.

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