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Austria foils pride parade attack: interior ministry

Austrian police have arrested three youngsters, including a 14-year-old, for allegedly planning an attack at Vienna's pride parade, which drew hundreds of thousands of people, officials said Sunday.

Published: 18 June 2023 13:21 CEST

Participants of the

Participants of the "Rainbow Parade" (Pride Parade) on the Ringstrasse in Vienna on June 17, 2023. Austrian police have arrested three young people for allegedly planning an attack on the parade. Photo: Alex HALADA / AFP

The men aged 14, 17 and 20 and suspected of being Islamic State (IS) sympathisers were held ahead of the parade, according to domestic intelligence agency (DSN) chief Omar Haijawi-Pirchner.

He told reporters that there was “never any threat” to those who participated in the Pride Parade in central Vienna on Saturday.

“They sympathised with the Islamic State online and shared extremist content. In this context, the suspects focused on the Pride Parade as a potential target for an attack,” the interior ministry said in a press release.

During raids on two premises on Saturday, authorities discovered weapons and other evidence against the three Austrians with Bosnian and Chechen roots.

One of them was already previously known to police. They had planned to use “knives or vehicles” in the attack, police told reporters.

Some 300,000 took part in the parade for LGBTQ rights.

In November 2020, a convicted Islamic State group sympathiser went on a shooting rampage in downtown Vienna, killing four and wounding 23 others before police shot him dead.

It marked the Alpine nation’s first deadly jihadist attack.

Earlier this year, a Vienna court sentenced two alleged accomplices of the gunman to life in prison, while two others received prison terms of 19 and 20 years.

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EXPLAINED: How dangerous is Austria's growing right-wing extremist movement?

In June, an Austria-wide police operation against right-wing extremists found numerous Nazi objects, such as clothing with specific symbols and a considerable amount of data storage media were seized.

A total of 15 people between the ages of 16 and 57 were charged, most of them under the Prohibition Act, which criminalises National Socialist “reactivation”. Those charged were predominantly, but not exclusively, men.

The Ministry of the Interior announced that the operation against right-wing extremists was carried out as part of a “Joint Action Day” coordinated by the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence Service (DSN).

READ ALSO: What does Austria’s far-right win in the EU elections mean for foreigners?

The focus was on targeting extremist-motivated and violent individuals as well as people who spread right-wing extremist hate propaganda. Several buildings were raided at the same time as part of the operation. The evidence is currently being viewed and forensically evaluated.

According to authorities, right-wing extremist groups were generally becoming more active, and the risk of right-wing extremist-motivated acts was constantly on the rise.

Right wing groups are not united

The Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN) expressly warns of increased right-wing extremist tendencies, with the number of reports of right-wing extremist crimes rising from 928 in 2022 to 1208 in the previous year.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the activities of far-right groups were massively restricted, and some long-established far-right events disappeared and have not been held since. However, new extremist networks also formed online during the lockdown and are now becoming increasingly active.

However, there is no unified right-wing extremist scene in Austria, according to a report in the Der Standard newspaper.

On the contrary, some groups are divided – for example, on which side to take in the Russian war against Ukraine. Some support Vladimir Putin, and others want to go to war as mercenaries for Ukraine, the report added.

After 13 house searches, the authorities seized dozens of rifles, submachine guns and pistols, as well as several Nazi memorabilia and drugs in Austria. (Copyright: BMI/Gerd PACHAUER)

How bad is the situation?

Extreme right-wing groups in Austria are often led by political beliefs that include ethnic nationalism, islamophobia, xenophobia, anti-semitism, racism, rejection of democratic and plural societies and more. They also usually have great affinity for firearms – which means they could pose a terror threat.

Since 2019, 41 deposits with large weapons and explosives have been found during raids against right-wing extremist suspects in Austria. Most of them were found in Lower Austria, Upper Austria and Salzburg – and in the vast majority of cases, the investigators also found “Nazi devotional objects”.

Earlier in 2024, Austria’s Interior Ministry warned of a “noticeable influx” in the country’s extreme right scene.

“The so-called ‘New Right’ currently represents the greatest challenge in the area of right-wing extremism,” Austria’s interior ministry said in a statement at the time, naming the Identitarian Movement, a nationalistic and anti-immigration movement, as part of this grouping.

READ ALSO: How much of a threat is Austria’s far-right Identitarian Movement?

There is currently a noticeable influx into the scene, although exact numbers are difficult to determine, it added.

The Austrian government has already stated it expects a rapid expansion of right-wing extremist trends.

In particular, “the expansion of martial arts networks with a friendlier and less militant appearance is expected to attract the interest of young people across Europe”, the government wrote in its Constitutional Protection Report 2023.

The authorities fear that this recruitment will lead to more violence, for example, against Jews, people from other ethnic backgrounds, Muslims and the LGBTIQ community.

READ ALSO: The imam and rabbi’s friendship that defies stereotypes in Austria

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