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Compulsory vaccination rules come into force in Austria

It's official: From Saturday, Austrians over the age of 18 must be vaccinated against Covid-19 or face the possibility of a heavy fine, an unprecedented measure in the European Union.

A patient receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty) Covid-19 vaccine.
A patient receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty) Covid-19 vaccine. Austria's parliament approved in a vote on January 20th, 2022 the introduction of mandatory Covid-19 vaccination, becoming the first European country to do so. (Photo by JEFF PACHOUD / AFP)

The new measure, adopted on January 20th by Parliament, was signed into law by President Alexander Van der Bellen on Friday, the culmination of a process that began in November in the face of the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

The government decided to pursue its new tougher approach despite criticism within the country.

“No other country in Europe is following us on compulsory vaccines,” said Manuel Krautgartner, who has campaigned against the new approach.

In neighbouring Germany, a similar law championed by the new Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz was debated last month in the Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, but has not made progress yet due to divisions within the political class.

Checks from mid-March
Despite the threat of such a drastic measure, the vaccination rate in Austria has still failed to take off, languishing below the levels seen in France or Spain.

The humanitarian association Arbeiter Samariter Bund, which oversees some vaccination sites in the capital Vienna, said there had an uptick in turnout this week.

“We recorded a small increase of around nine percent compared to last week,” the organisation’s manager, Michael Hausmann, told AFP.

From the average of around 7,000 injections administered every day in the capital, only 10 percent are a first dose, he said.

Erika Viskancove, a 33-year-old accountant, said she came to a vaccination centre situated next to an Art Deco swimming pool to receive her third booster dose.

“I sincerely believe that the law is the best way” to defeat the pandemic, she said, calling on other countries to follow Austria’s lead.

Melanie, a 23-year-old waitress who preferred not to give her second name, said she was mainly there to avoid ending up “locked up at home”.

Non-vaccinated people are currently excluded from restaurants, sports and cultural venues.

But from now on they will also be subject to fines, which Melanie said was “unhealthy”.

The law applies to all adult residents with the exception of pregnant women, those who have contracted the virus within the past 180 days and those with medical exemptions.

Checks will begin from mid-March, with sanctions ranging from 600 to 3,600 euros ($690-$4,100).

They will, however, be lifted if the person fined gets vaccinated within two weeks.

Protect against new variants 
Waiting in the queue, others say they are in favour of vaccination for all.

“We would have finished a long time ago (with the pandemic) if everyone had been vaccinated”, said legal worker, Angelika Altmann.

More than 60 percent of Austrians support the measure, according to a recent survey, but large swathes of the population remain strongly opposed.

For several weeks after the announcement of the new law, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against what they regard as a radical and draconian policy.

Critics have also questioned the need for compulsion given the far milder nature of the Omicron variant.

Conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who leads the Alpine country with the environmentalist Greens, also announced at the same time a relaxation of earlier Covid-19 restrictions.

But for Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein, compulsory vaccination is aimed at both protecting the country against new waves and fighting new variants.

Vaccination passes are now a reality in an increasing number of countries for certain professions or activities.

In Ecuador, it is compulsory, including for children over the age of five, a world first.

Before that, two authoritarian states in Central Asia — Tajikistan and Turkmenistan — mandated vaccination, as did Indonesia, even if less than half the population is actually vaccinated.

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Member comments

  1. It is sad that Austria goes the exact opposite way to many other countries by fining perfectly healthy human beings who do not want to take a vaccine that has been on the market just under 2 years. Hopefully their people wake up and realize that this is not necessary and even at the very least psychologically harmful.

    1. Totally agree. It’s a slippery slope for those who don’t learn from history gladly embrace. I guess 80 years after the fascism of NAZI Germany is long enough to repeat without much opposition.

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POLITICS

Austrias far right demands an EU ‘remigration’ commissioner

Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) on Tuesday called for the government to name an EU "remigration" commissioner after winning the EU elections in the Alpine nation.

Austrias far right demands an EU 'remigration' commissioner

The FPOe espouses the far-right concept of remigration that calls for expelling people of non-European ethnic backgrounds who they say have failed to integrate.

While it is up to the conservative government to nominate any commissioner, the FPOe said its first nationwide win at the ballot box gave it the right to name someone to the role and dictate their portfolio.

In the EU elections, the FPOe took 25.4 percent of the votes, just ahead of the ruling conservative People’s Party (OeVP) on 24.5 percent.

“What I have noticed in the last few weeks during the election campaign is that there is above all a need for sensible migration policy, that there is a need for remigration,” FPOe secretary general Christian Hafenecker told a press conference.

“We need a remigration commissioner,” he added, putting forward an FPOe official to fill the role.

It is not the first time the FPOe has espoused the concept

In 2023, party leader Herbert Kickl said that those who “refuse to integrate” should lose their citizenship and be expelled.

The notion of remigration is associated with white nationalists who champion the great replacement conspiracy theory.

The theory alleges a plot to replace Europe’s so-called native white population with non-white migrants.

The United Nations rights chief warned in March that the conspiracy theories spread are “delusional” and racist and are directly spurring violence.

The FPOe is expected to top the vote in September’s national elections, but will probably need to find willing coalition partners to govern.

The party — founded in the 1950s by former Nazis — has been part of a ruling coalition several times but has never governed the country of nine million.

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: What does Austria’s far-right win in the EU elections mean for foreigners?

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