Despite fierce criticism

Large-scale police operation: protest camp in Lower Austria cleared

The initiative "Reason instead of the eastern bypass" and Greenpeace warn against the destruction of the floodplain.

(Bild: Initiative „Vernunft statt Ostumfahrung“)

A large contingent of police was deployed early on Thursday morning to clear a protest camp in the Fischa-Au in the district of Wiener Neustadt. The activists have been campaigning for months against the clearing of riparian forest due to the planned bypass. The project is considered one of the most controversial road construction projects in Lower Austria.

The police arrived early on Thursday morning with drones and a special Cobra squad to clear the area in the Fischa-Au in Liechtenwörth. The assembly had not been registered and the protesters were repeatedly asked to leave the occupied area, according to the police. 

Construction project is a "fundamental issue"
Around ten people did not want to leave the camp voluntarily and were carried away by the officers - some protesters had hidden in tree houses. Barricades and the so-called protest tree house were removed by the emergency services. According to police spokesman Raimund Schwaigerlehner, the "peaceful assembly" was completely dispersed by midday. Only one provisional arrest had been made.

Activists from the "Reason instead of the eastern bypass" initiative have been campaigning against the planned Wiener Neustadt eastern bypass in the Lichtenwörth area for months. They are particularly critical of the fact that parts of a floodplain forest, which is classified as a valuable protected area in Lower Austria, are to be cleared for the project.

The demonstrators also see the construction project as a fundamental question of how much "soil consumption" Austria - and Lower Austria in particular - can still afford in the future. After all, Wiener Neustadt is already one of the most built-up cities in the whole of Austria. 

Negative effects on health
According to the organization, the construction of the road would "irretrievably destroy productive farmland and a local recreation area". Landowners and organic farmers would be dispossessed and see the construction as a "door opener for the whole area to be built over at some point".

Climate activists criticize the project, which has been planned for decades, as "completely out of date", while doctors point to the negative effects of the eastern bypass on health and quality of life. In contrast, local residents welcome the construction project, as it is expected to reduce traffic by around 20 percent.

The clearance and start of the clearing work is an environmental crime that will be paid for dearly by future generations.

Helga Krismer, Landessprecherin der NÖ Grünen und Klubobfrau im NÖ Landtag

Bild: CHRISTIAN DUSEK

The initiative is also receiving political backing. The clearance and the start of the clearing work are "an environmental crime that the next generations will pay dearly for", reacted Helga Krismer, spokesperson for the Lower Austrian Green Party and head of the Lower Austrian parliamentary group. 

In an open letter to Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP), her deputy Udo Landbauer (FPÖ) and Mayor Klaus Schneeberger (ÖVP), Parents for Future called for the construction of the eastern bypass to be halted. Unfortunately in vain: according to police spokesman Schwaigerlehner, work on the eastern bypass was resumed on Thursday morning. A cycling demonstration has been announced for Saturday at 14:00 on Wiener Neustadt's main square.

The infrastructure project includes the construction of a section that will complete the traffic ring around Wiener Neustadt. Preparations for the project began at the end of September with the ground-breaking ceremony for a 1.3 kilometer long access road. Work began on Thursday to clear the approved route for the section of the bypass.