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Austrian police arrest dozens of protesters who tried to disrupt a march by far-right extremists

Police said on Sunday they arrested more than 50 people when they clashed with protesters who tried to disrupt a march by hundreds of far-right activists in the Austrian capital.

BERLIN – Police said Sunday they arrested more than 50 people after clashes with protesters who tried to disrupt a march by hundreds of far-right activists in the Austrian capital.

Saturday’s demonstrations came as Austria’s political parties prepare for parliamentary elections in September, where the far-right is expected to make significant gains.

Anti-fascist groups and left-wing political parties had called for protests against a rally and march by Identitarian and other far-right activists, the Austrian Press Agency reported. Social media posts showed demonstrators in central Vienna holding a banner calling for “remigration,” a term used to advocate for the mass return of migrants to their countries of origin.

Hundreds of officers were deployed to separate the opposing groups — each numbering several hundred strong. Forty-three people were temporarily detained for refusing to end a sit-down protest that blocked the march, APA reported, citing city police.

Another 10 were arrested after some masked protesters threw rocks and bottles. Three officers were injured and the windows of a patrol car were smashed, police said.

Interior Minister Gehard Karner, a conservative, said police would prosecute violations, including during demonstrations, “regardless of whether they are committed by left- or right-wing extremists or other enemies of democracy.”

Austria goes to the polls on September 29 in elections expected to confirm a recent pan-European trend of tilting to the right. The far-right Freedom Party narrowly defeated the conservative People’s Party in recent European Parliament elections.

Politicians from left-wing parties, including GroenLinks (the current coalition partner of the conservatives) and the opposition party Social Democrats, warn that a government including the Party for Freedom would encourage right-wing radicals.

“They want nothing more than the end of our pluralistic democratic society,” said Eva Blimlinger, spokeswoman for the Greens.

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