Category Archives: Austria

‘This is the normalisation of racism’: apprehension at prospect of election success for Austria’s far right

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Anti-migrant, anti-Islam FPÖ could emerge as most voted for party in Sunday’s parliamentary poll

After winning the EU elections in June, Austria’s far-right Freedom party (FPÖ) seized the moment, calling for the appointment of a EU “remigration” commissioner to be tasked with the forced return of migrants and citizens with a migration background to their countries of origin.

The muted reaction that followed was a sharp contrast to Germany, where months earlier, allegations that members of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) had attended a meeting at which they discussed remigration dominated headlines and prompted tens of thousands to take to the streets in protest.

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Central Europe braces for further flooding as swollen rivers continue to rise

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Deadly Storm Boris has dumped up to five times average September rainfall in four days

As swollen rivers continued to rise, volunteers and emergency workers in towns and cities across a swathe of central Europe were reinforcing defences against floods that have killed at least 21 people in four countries.

Storm Boris has dumped up to five times the average September rainfall on parts of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia in four days, submerging entire neighbourhoods and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate.

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Death toll reaches 16 as ‘dramatic’ flooding in central Europe continues

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Czech Republic, Poland and Austria fear worst may yet be to come as thousands are evacuated to higher ground

The death toll from torrential rain and flooding in central and eastern Europe has risen to at least 16, with several more people missing, as authorities reported deaths in the Czech Republic, Poland and Austria and warned the worst may be to come.

The number of victims in Poland rose to five after a surgeon returning from work drowned in the south-western town of Nysa, where the hospital was evacuated and patients rescued by raft. Four more people had died in the southern towns of Bielsko-Biała and Lądek-Zdrój, firefighters said.

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‘Catastrophe of epic proportions’: seven drown in Europe amid heavy floods

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Storm Boris has caused rivers to burst banks and trapped people in their homes across Austria, Poland and Slovakia

Seven people have drowned in Austria, Poland and Romania and four others are missing in the Czech Republic as Storm Boris continues to lash central and eastern Europe, bringing torrential rain and floods that have forced the evacuation of thousands of people from their homes.

Swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia have been battered by high winds and unusually fierce rains since Thursday.

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Taylor Swift says she felt ‘tremendous guilt’ after Vienna shows cancelled over terror threat

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Singer shares ‘rollercoaster of emotions’ at end of European leg of Eras tour, saying she is grateful ‘we were grieving concerts and not lives’

Taylor Swift has spoken for the first time about the three Vienna shows on her blockbuster Eras tour that were cancelled earlier this month after a foiled terror attack, saying she felt “a new sense of fear” and a “tremendous amount of guilt”.

The planned terror attack was uncovered by Austrian authorities who eventually arrested three teenaged suspects – aged 17, 18 and 19 – for allegedly planning an Islamist attack in the Vienna region, with Swift’s shows being the “focus” of the plot.

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Third teenager arrested over foiled Taylor Swift concert attack in Vienna

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Iraqi man, 18, said to be an associate of main 19-year-old suspect in terror plot that has led to cancellation of shows

A third suspect has been arrested in connection with a foiled terror attack on Taylor Swift’s now-cancelled concerts in Vienna, the Austrian interior minister has said.

The 18-year-old Iraqi man is understood to have been an associate of the main 19-year-old suspect, identified as Beran A, an Austrian with North Macedonian roots.

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Taylor Swift concert plot: Austrian police find bomb chemicals in suspect’s home

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Austrian, 19, arrested alongside 17-year-old for allegedly planning Islamist attack at Vienna venue

The 19-year-old prime suspect in an alleged plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert that led to the cancellation of the singer’s three-night run in Vienna had collected chemicals with the intention of building a bomb, senior Austrian security officials have said.

The Austrian suspect was arrested along with a 17-year-old who recently started working for a services company providing support for the concerts, on suspicion of planning an Islamist attack. A third person, 15, was taken into custody late on Wednesday in connection with the investigation.

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Three Taylor Swift shows cancelled after Vienna police foil planned attack

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Main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian, said to have pledged oath of allegiance to Islamic State group ‘in recent weeks’

The Vienna leg of Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras tour been cancelled after two people were arrested over an apparent plot to launch an attack on a public event in the Austrian capital.

The announcement was made by concert organisers Barracuda Music late on Wednesday, after Austrian authorities said they had arrested a 19-year-old man for allegedly planning an Islamist attack in the Vienna region and suggested that Swift’s shows had been the “focus” of the plot.

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‘Oil Kills’ protesters disrupt flights at airports across Europe in wave of action

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Ten activists arrested at Heathrow, over 30 flights cancelled at Cologne-Bonn, and planes delayed or diverted

Climate activists acting under the banner “oil kills” have glued themselves to the tarmac and grounded flights across Europe as holidaymakers attempt to make summer getaways.

In a wave of protests at airports from Oslo to Barcelona, activists disrupted flights and demanded that rich and polluting countries phase out fossil fuels by 2030. The protests, which the activists said had led to several arrests, came a day after climate scientists logged the world’s hottest day on record.

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Vandals in Austria behead sculpture of Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus

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Artist behind controversial piece in Linz cathedral says vandalism shows there are still ‘people who question women’s right to their own bodies’

Vandals have beheaded a sculpture of the Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus on display in the cathedral in the Austrian city of Linz. The work had drawn criticism from some Catholics, who said it was blasphemous.

The sculpture had been on view at the St Mary Cathedral, Austria’s largest, as part of an art installation about women’s roles, family images and gender equality, the Linz diocese said in a statement. It said the vandalism, which occurred on Monday, had been reported to police.

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Green and social groups to benefit from €25m fortune of Austrian heiress

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Council of 50 random citizens decide how to use money given up by wealth-tax campaigner Marlene Engelhorn

An inherited fortune given away by an Austrian heiress who shunned her millions will go to dozens of non-profit organisations that work on issues including the environment, health and homelessness, a citizen group tasked to manage the fund has announced.

Marlene Engelhorn, a 32-year-old activist who has campaigned for a tax on extreme wealth, announced in January that she would give away the vast bulk – €25m(£21.1m) – of the money she inherited from her grandmother.

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Von der Leyen quizzed on whether she would work with far-right in EU election debate – as it happened

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Frontrunner to be European Commission president was questioned over alliances with Meloni and others in face-off with rival candidates

Sandro Gozi, representing Renew Europe Now, has walked on stage.

Walter Baier, representing the Party of the European Left, has entered the stage.

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Far-right EU election gains could boost nationalist parties on home turf

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Polls indicate a surge for the right across the continent in next month’s ballots but the centrists are still likely to hold sway in parliament

Far-right gains in next month’s European elections will be hard, if not impossible, to parlay into more power in parliament, experts say, but they could boost nationalist parties in EU capitals – with potentially greater consequences.

Polling suggests far-right and hardline conservative parties could finish first in nine EU states, including Austria, France and the Netherlands, in the polls between 6 and 9 June, and second or third in another nine, including Germany, Spain, Portugal and Sweden.

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Four Germans caught marking Hitler’s birthday at his house

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Police in Upper Austria province said the four were laying white roses at Nazi dictator’s birthplace

Four Germans were caught laying white roses in memory of Adolf Hitler at the house where the Nazi dictator was born in western Austria on the anniversary of his birth, and one gave a Hitler salute as they posed for photos, police have said.

Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn. After lengthy wrangling over the future of the house where he was born, work started last year on turning it into a police station — a project meant to make it unattractive as a pilgrimage site for people who glorify Hitler.

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Avalanche in Austria kills three skiers from the Netherlands

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Group of 17 were ski touring near resort of Sölden when 80-metre wide avalanche hit

An avalanche near the Austrian ski resort of Sölden has killed three skiers from the Netherlands. Another person was rescued and taken to hospital.

The victims were part of a 17-person ski touring group that was on an ascent with four Austrian guides. Ski touring involves using skis with special bindings and skins that make moving uphill possible.

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Populist parties’ divisions jeopardise chances of setting European agenda

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Survey shows supporters of nationalist parties hold widely differing views on EU membership, migration and support for Ukraine

Populist and nationalist parties fighting the European elections in June are deeply divided on almost all key issues, according to a survey, in a finding that questions their chances of defining the bloc’s agenda even in the event of a predicted far-right surge.

However, the report, by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), also said pro-EU parties risked mobilising the Eurosceptic vote if they continued to ape hard-right policies rather than coming up with persuasive alternatives.

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Vienna court overturns decision to transfer Josef Fritzl to regular prison

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Austrian man jailed for raping and imprisoning his daughter for 24 years to remain in psychiatric unit

A Vienna court has overturned a decision to transfer Josef Fritzl from a special psychiatric unit to a regular jail, ordering the case back to the lower court.

Fritzl, 88, repeatedly raped his daughter and locked her in a cellar for more than 24 years, fathering seven children with her.

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Four women and girl, 13, killed in Vienna in two separate incidents

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Three women found with fatal knife wounds in brothel, while bodies of another woman and daughter discovered in apartment

Austrian authorities are investigating the killings of four women and a 13-year-old girl in Vienna within a day, including three found stabbed to death in a brothel.

The bodies of three young women were found with fatal knife wounds in a brothel in the Austrian capital’s Brigittenau district on Friday night after a witness alerted police.

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Thousands across Austria take part in protests against far right

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‘Defend democracy’ events were planned for Innsbruck, Salzburg and in front of parliament building in Vienna

Thousands of Austrians have taken to the streets of the country’s three largest cities, in a spillover of protests over the rise of the far right in neighbouring Germany.

Under the slogan “defend democracy”, gatherings organised by a broad alliance of civil society organisations, NGOs, political groups, church communities and trade unions took place in Innsbruck, Salzburg, and in front of the parliament building in Vienna.

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Skiers leaving ‘forever chemicals’ on pistes, study finds

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Research finds 14 different types of PFAS chemicals commonly used in ski wax on slopes in Austrian ski resorts

Skiers are leaving “forever chemicals” in the snow on ski slopes, a study has found.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – a group of 10,000 or so human-made chemicals widely used in industrial processes, firefighting foams and consumer products – are colloquially known as “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in the environment; they do not easily break down.

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