Criticism of "Nazi ball"

Peaceful protest ends with suspicion of incitement

On the occasion of the Akademikerball, the Jewish Austrian University Students (JöH) organized a three-day video installation at the outer Burgtor, in which a "countdown to the Nazi ball" was projected.

(Bild: JöH)

On Thursday evening, the police stopped a protest action by Jewish students against the controversial Vienna Academic Ball on the grounds of "incitement to hatred". The JöH association sees the police action as a dangerous abuse of a law that is supposed to guarantee the protection of minorities.

The legal representative of the Jewish Austrian University Students (JöH), Bini Guttmann, sharply criticized the authorities and described the dispersal of the demonstration as "absurd". The protest action, which was deemed "incitement to hatred", was in fact "legitimate political criticism". He sees this as an alarming precedent: it was not the demonstrators who had committed incitement, but the authorities who had misused the offense to suppress unwelcome criticism.

A protest action by the JöH was stopped by the police due to "suspicion of incitement", as can be seen in a video on X:

For this year's Akademikerball, the Jewish Austrian University Students (JöH) organized a three-day video installation against right-wing extremist fraternities at the Burgtor. A "countdown to the Nazi ball" was projected, accompanied by chalk paintings. The first two evenings are said to have been peaceful.

The first two evenings of the rally are said to have been peaceful and without police intervention until the Akademikerball organizer Udo Guggenbichler is said to have turned up.

(Bild: JöH)

Shortly afterwards, dozens of police officers are said to have arrived to stop the video installation.

(Bild: JöH)

Video installation banned for "incitement to hatred"
On the third day, the evening before the ball, the FPÖ mandatary and Akademikerball organizer Udo Guggenbichler is said to have suddenly turned up, according to the student association. He was under investigation for National Socialist reactivation in 2023, but the case was dropped. After he is said to have observed the rally and made phone calls, dozens of police officers are said to have arrived to stop the video installation. The reason for this was the "order of a lawyer from the assembly authorities" following a "complaint of incitement to hatred", as police spokesperson Philipp Haßlinger confirmed. 

According to the police, the designation of the WKR ball as a "Nazi ball" fulfilled this offense. The timeline suggests that the complaint could be directly linked to Guggenbichler's observation, as JöH suspects. This would raise the question of whether a politician who was himself under investigation for re-activation had instrumentalized a law for the protection of minorities against a Jewish organization.

In order to justify this grotesque police operation, a law that is actually supposed to protect us minorities was misused.

Alon Ishay, Präsident der Jüdischen österreichischen HochschülerInnen

JöH: Criticism of possible abuse of criminal law
Alon Ishay, President of the Jewish Austrian University Students, was stunned: he explained that Jewish students were being persecuted by the police because they criticized the ball of those fraternities that were particularly notable for their anti-Semitism - apparently with the support of the ball organizer. In order to justify this scandalous police operation, a law that actually serves to protect minorities was misused.

In the course of the "shutdown", posters calling for the demonstration on Michaelerplatz on Friday were allegedly confiscated. Identity checks were also reportedly carried out on the participants as they were suspected of "incitement to hatred". Individual police officers also tried to physically prevent the substitute projection at times, but were reprimanded by their officer in charge.

The JöH reacted indignantly on Friday: freedom of assembly was apparently "restricted in favor of right-wing extremist fraternity members", which in their view was intended to "silence critical voices".