The organizers even spoke of more than 2,000, originally 300 were expected. Numerous signs with dissatisfaction with black and blue could already be seen at the main station at the beginning. An actress read the message from ex-Jedermann Cornelius Obonya, who called for a boycott of Haslau.
Obonya quoted passages from the governor’s opening speeches at the Salzburg Festivals in 2013 and 2018. In them, Haslauer quoted, among other things, the famous sentence “I have a dream” by freedom fighter Martin Luther King, referred to the atrocities of the world wars and the “annexation” in 1938 and the “never again” of the anti-fascist resistance. Obonya took these statements as an opportunity to confront Haslauer with his sudden willingness to form a black-blue coalition: “Wilfried Haslauer’s aversion to the participation of parties other than the FPÖ; editor’s note) in the state government – despite all the possibilities , which the election result would have offered – is so great in 2023 that the participation of the largely openly racist FPÖ is no longer a problem.”
According to Obonya, the governor tends to “forget the ‘never again’ depending on the situation”. The former Jedermann actor – Obonya played Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s “rich man” at the Salzburg Festival from 2013 to 2016 – had his representative close the opening speech with a call for a boycott against Haslauer: With a view to the opening of the upcoming festival, he called for “my Colleagues from all areas of art” to “leave the Felsenreitschule together at the latest at the beginning of the speech by the governor”.
Sarah Lena Schlegel from Solidarity Salzburg, the organizer of the demonstration, was similarly aggressive. The government’s work agreement leaves out issues such as man-made climate change and conveys anachronistic gender roles, people with non-heterosexual orientation would be marginalized. The prospective government is “designing an image of society” that is “beyond the reality lived in Salzburg”.
The final rally at Residenzplatz was also marked by open rejection of the newly formed cabinet. The Austrian writer Ludwig Laher described Haslauer’s statements before the election, when coalition plans with the FPÖ were still being denied, as “hot air”. It is “ridiculous to distinguish between rhetorically soft and radical blues”. Monika Salzer, psychotherapist, author and founder of “Grannies against the Right” stated that the “OeVP, which once supported the state, had helped the FPÖ to power since the dam burst in 2000 through a thoroughly misguided policy” and summed it up warningly: “This political climate poisons our children and grandchildren.”
The spokesman for Fridays for Future condemned the “backward-looking, irresponsible policy at the expense of our future” by the black-blue government, which was “not sustainable enough” to “lead Salzburg into the future in terms of social and climate policy”. The anti-racist collective “Antira” and feminist activists from various organizations also spoke out. Not only is Salzburg developing into a federal state that “only supports its privileged white population”. Likewise, “courageous feminist work will be thrown back by years”.
The “Solidarisches Salzburg” protest movement, which was backed by more than 20 civil society organizations, rated the demonstration a complete success, as Sarah Lena Schlegel emphasized in a broadcast on Monday evening: “Today we showed that the people in Salzburg accept this regressive policy not accept”. It has been proven “that the resistance against this government is huge”. “And this resistance will stand up every day against every regressive decision by this state government.”
