54 Arrests at Austrian Far-Right Ball Demo
Police arrested 54 people after violence broke out as thousands protested against a ball organized by far-right groups and politicians in the Austrian capital of Vienna, local media reports said on Saturday.
Six policemen also suffered minor injuries at the protests that took place on Friday.
According to estimates, 5,000 - 9,000 people flooded into central Vienna on Friday to denounce the "Akademikerball" ("Academics' Ball") at the former imperial winter palace, the Hofburg.
Most of the protesters marched calmly to the slogan "Together against the right" amid heavy police presence.
The ball -- part of Vienna's traditional ball season which is currently in full swing -- is organized by the far-right, euroskeptic and anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPOe), the third-largest in parliament. In previous years other European far-right figures have attended including France's Marine Le Pen.
This year a number of Viennese taxi drivers clubbed together using Facebook to boycott the ball and refuse to take participants to the event.
Austrian police had this year prohibited some of the 15 anti-right demonstrations that had been planned, after scuffles between police and left-wing activists at last year's event left 20 people injured.
The Austrian Green Party in particular had called on people to march in Vienna to "send a strong signal" against "fascism". A number of Holocaust survivors also attended the protests.
"Corporations, extremists and Holocaust deniers out of the Hofburg" read some of the banners at the march.
Source: Agence France Presse
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