VIENNA (ChurchMilitant.com) – The Austrian State is moving forward with a take-no-prisoners mandate for the so-called COVID vaccine despite ongoing mass protests.
Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer
Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer confirmed in a Sunday press conference the universal mandate will come into force at the beginning of February. Austria is the first European country to make COVID-19 jabs compulsory for adults.
“I know there was a lot of speculation that this would be a half-hearted quasi-solution,” Nehammer warned. Instead, he said, “the controls will have consequences,” and those who don’t comply “will face high fines.”
The mandate was first introduced to the public in November.
“We will initiate countrywide compulsory vaccination [which] will enter into effect from Feb. 1, 2022,” dictated then-Austrian chancellor Alexander Schallenberg.
Nehammer cautioned that a brief grace period in February will give unvaccinated people time to “be persuaded” to get the jab. During the interim, “more information” will be made available to resisters.
The current chancellor tested positive for COVID-19 Jan. 7 despite three doses of a COVID shot. Nonetheless, he urged Austrians “to go get vaccinated, get boostered; it will most likely protect you from a severe bout with the virus.”
According to the chancellor, the mandate will be carried out in three phases:
Phase 1 — will start mid-March when authorities will begin checking the vax status of each citizen over 18
Phase 2 — includes a warning letter to those still not jabbed
Phase 3 — involves letters with a vaccination appointment sent to every remaining unvaxxed person
In the event of noncompliance, fines will be applied. Austrians unwilling to be vaxxed will face fines as high as 3,600 euros ($4,108). Persistent resisters will be fined another 600 euros every month ($684,61). Prison sentences for noncompliance have also been discussed.
The obligation will remain in force until Jan. 31, 2024.
Protests in Full Force
Tens of thousands of Austrians — both vaxxed and unvaxxed — have protested for months Austria’s draconian lockdown measures and its universal vax mandates. Catholics like Alexander Tschugguel of the St. Boniface Institute have rallied the Austrian people to resist the diktats.
At a rally in Vienna Saturday, Tschugguel led the crowd in the Lord’s prayer and exhorted them: “A government cannot rule against its own people in the long term — not if the people are fighting back!”
“A government cannot rule against its own people in the long term – not if the people are fighting back!”@ATschugguel at the Corona Protest in Vienna, in front of thousands of fellow Austrians who peacefully resist the tyrannical measures imposed by our government.#w1501 pic.twitter.com/ajMUDNWZnW
— St. Boniface Institute (@Inst_StBoniface) January 17, 2022
“[This] is not an empty phrase,” he emphasized. “Look around you — the Austrian people are standing up for themselves in the hundreds of thousands all over Austria.”
At a December rally, Tschugguel again urged his country people to pray: “We have to trust that the fight we are all fighting right now is not only carried by you all but is also carried by God when we pray.”
Gerhard Karner
While the bill to enforce the mandate was being drawn up, the Austrian government received more than 100,000 comments, many expressing their opposition, according to Bloomberg.
Austrian Cops Resist
Austrian police also weighed in on the mandate. On Jan. 10, 600 police officers wrote an open letter to Minister of the Interior Gerhard Karner demanding: “We ask you to work to ensure that no occupational or general vaccination obligation or any other form of indirect vaccination obligation is introduced in Austria.”
“From a medical point of view and for reasons of equal treatment,” they further petitioned that:
3G [German abbreviation for vaccinated] is completely suspended in the workplace, or at least converted to 1G — namely TESTED — and implemented with internal departmental resources. And to ensure that discrimination against unvaccinated colleagues and threats of disciplinary action and complaints against your employees come to an end, as well as allowing us to once again focus on our core policing tasks. We want to be there for the population as a “friend and helper.”
“We do not want to face the population in a threatening manner during predominantly peaceful demonstrations that were launched due to the increasing dissatisfaction of the population with politics,” they added.
Most Austrians Jabbed
Since the mandate was announced in November, the number of those who have taken the first dose of the vaccine has risen from 69% to 75%, and the proportion who have taken the third vaccine is close to 50%.
But ardent Austrians keep fighting against the totalitarian State.
“Faith is what keeps people fighting,” Tschugguel said in a recent interview. “If you go to our demonstrations, hundreds of thousands of people are there. You see signs with Bible quotes.”
But going forward, the patriotic Austrian added, “those people need to understand that if you follow Christ, Christ expects that you are ready for a sacrifice.”