Austria protesters demand end to virus measures

(20 May 2020) Hundreds of people gathered on Vienna's central Heldenplatz square on Wednesday to protest against the government measures implemented to curb the coronavirus. In order to keep the required distance of one meter between each other people were standing on signs depicting a baby elephant – a reference to a government campaign asking people to keep at least "the length of one baby elephant" between each other in public. The protest was organized by the right-wing Freedom Party and constitutes a first sign that the election campaign for the mayoral office of Vienna is about to pick up speed. The Freedom Party's candidate Dominik Nepp accused the government of fear mongering and trying to silence dissenting voices. He demanded an end to the mandatory wearing of facemasks in many public spaces accusing the government of suffering from "Corona-insanity".   Official police numbers estimate the number of participants at around 500 while the Freedom Party claims that 1,500 protesters were present. A small group of 100 leftist counter-protesters gathered on the other side of the square. A large number of police officers were present to keep the two groups away from each other. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...