Yesterday, a wonderful event took place: two students started a group at Facebook. “It’s time for a candle-lit demonstration”. This happened two weeks ago. Until now, the group has grown enormously. More than 10.000 people joined it. And well … yesterday, we all were swimming in a sea of light.
But why? What was the reason to do this? Well, maybe you don’t know much about Austrian politics. The last thing you will remember will be the pictures of Joerg Haider meeting Saddam Hussein (or one of his look-alikes). Another news, that was spread all over the world, was the result of the election last year. Nearly 30 percent of the voters voted for a right-wing party, like the Freedom Party or the new party of Mr. Haider. Days after his success, he died in a car-crash. Well, on June 7th, the election of the European Parliament took place, and the Freedom Party did an awful campaign. It was islamophobic, anti-Semitic, and fascistic too. Every politician of the other parties condemned that campaign, but they weren’t able to stop them. Fortunately the Freedom Party hadn’t that success they were dreaming of. But we don’t want to see such campaigns again in the upcoming elections.
Therefore the sea of lights around the Austrian parliament wants:
the people more respectful
the people to be more humane
more civil courage
and good discussions, no propaganda-lies
More than 5.000 people take part in this event here in Vienna. It was breath-taking. All the people were peacefully fighting for a good thing. And it all started with a Facebook-group. Isn’t that fascinating? And when the street in front of the parliament became a pedestrian area (because of the mass of people), it has that wonderful little anarchistic charm too.
Maybe it just was the beginning of something. We are able to go on the street every week. Fighting for a change (yeah, Americans, I know, you love that word) in Austrian politics. We don’t need right-wing parties here in Austria (mainly here in Austria, remember our history!). And maybe, we are able to make things better. I’m full of hope.
Here some pictures I took at the candle-lit demonstration.
Filed under: Future, Politics, Society , election, change, vienna, parliament, sea of lights, joerg haider, freedom party, respect, humane, civil courage, anti-semitic, islamophobic, fascistic, facebook, group, students
