Thousands Protest in Vienna against Mandatory Vaccination

Doctor Eva Raunig vaccinates a person with a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine inside a special container to use for general practitioners, called "vaccination box" in Vienna, Austria April 26, 2021. (Reuters)
Doctor Eva Raunig vaccinates a person with a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine inside a special container to use for general practitioners, called "vaccination box" in Vienna, Austria April 26, 2021. (Reuters)
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Thousands Protest in Vienna against Mandatory Vaccination

Doctor Eva Raunig vaccinates a person with a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine inside a special container to use for general practitioners, called "vaccination box" in Vienna, Austria April 26, 2021. (Reuters)
Doctor Eva Raunig vaccinates a person with a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine inside a special container to use for general practitioners, called "vaccination box" in Vienna, Austria April 26, 2021. (Reuters)

Thousands of people took to the streets of Austria's capital on Saturday to protest against government plans to introduce mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for all next month.

"The government must go!" crowds chanted at one rally in central Vienna in what has become a routine Saturday event.

Parliament is scheduled to vote next week on the issue, which has polarized the country as coronavirus cases surge.

In November, the government announced a fourth national lockdown and said it would make vaccinations compulsory for all Austrians, the first European Union country to do so.

A poll for Profil magazine found 51% of those surveyed oppose making jabs mandatory from February, of whom 34% were against compulsory vaccination in general and 17% wanted to wait. The survey found 45% of Austrians favored compulsory vaccination starting in February.

The poll showed Chancellor Karl Nehammer's conservatives and the opposition Social Democrats in a dead heat for first place at 25%, followed by the right-wing Freedom Party, a strident critic of government policy, at 20%.

The Greens, junior partner in the coalition, were even with the liberal Neos on 11%, while the vaccine-skeptical MFG party scored 6%.

Health authorities have reported more than 1.4 million infections and nearly 14,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic broke out in early 2020.



US Declares South Africa's Ambassador Persona Non Grata

FILE - South Africa's ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool speaks at the South African Embassy in Washington, Dec. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
FILE - South Africa's ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool speaks at the South African Embassy in Washington, Dec. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
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US Declares South Africa's Ambassador Persona Non Grata

FILE - South Africa's ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool speaks at the South African Embassy in Washington, Dec. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
FILE - South Africa's ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool speaks at the South African Embassy in Washington, Dec. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday declared Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa's ambassador to the US, persona non grata, calling the envoy a "race-baiting politician" who hates America and President Donald Trump.
"South Africa's Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country," Rubio said in a post on social media platform X. "We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA," Rubio said.
Rasool presented his credentials to then-President Joe Biden on January 13, a week before Trump took office, marking the start of the envoy's tenure, according to the South African embassy's website. It said this was Rasool's second stint in Washington.
The US State Department and South Africa's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Chrispin Phiri, spokesperson for South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation, posted on X that the government "will engage through the diplomatic channel."
Ties between the United States and South Africa have deteriorated since Trump cut US financial aid to the country, citing disapproval of its land policy and of its genocide case at the International Court of Justice against Washington's ally Israel.
Trump has said, without citing evidence, that "South Africa is confiscating land" and that "certain classes of people" are being treated "very badly."
South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, who is close to Trump, has said white South Africans have been the victims of "racist ownership laws."
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law a bill in January aimed at making it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest, in some cases without compensating the owner.
Ramaphosa has defended the policy and said the government had not confiscated any land. The policy was aimed at evening out racial disparities in land ownership in the Black-majority nation, he said.