Wiener Neustadt:

“Conference of the animals” wants to prevent bypass to the east

Activists around Doris Holler-Brucker (center) are disguised as they were back then. Reinhard Bödenauer from Catholic Action also supports the resistance.(Bild: zVg)

With an animal protest à la Hainburg 40 years ago, activists are trying to preserve a valuable natural paradise. They are announcing "peaceful resistance" to the planned eastern bypass. Wiener Neustadt's mayor Klaus Schneeberger opposes this.

The planned construction of the eastern bypass in Wiener Neustadt is hotly disputed. FPÖ State Transport Councillor Udo Landbauer and ÖVP Mayor Klaus Schneeberger are determined to implement the project quickly. However, as reported, there is also increasing resistance.

The legendary "Press Conference of the Animals" in May 1984, held by Auhirsch Günther Nenning and Freda Meissner-Blau or lecturer Bernd Lötsch, was the birth of the protests to preserve the Hainburger Au. And the beginning of the blossoming of the local environmental movement and the Green Party. "This colourful spectacle led to the successful Konrad Lorenz referendum, which was a turning point against the destruction of this valuable natural paradise," recalls organizer and now Honorary President of the Environmental Umbrella Association Dr. Gerhard Heilingbrunner.

"We are determined to put up peaceful resistance"
 In the wake of this historic media event, environmental activists have now gathered once again for a "Press Conference of the Animals 2.0" in Lichtenwörth. The unanimous demand of dragonflies, brown hares, ground squirrels and stag beetles: an immediate stop to the "eastern bypass", which would cut an asphalt route through a nature reserve and the most fertile fields. Hainburg activist Doris Holler-Brucker was also there: "There are many of us and we are determined to resist peacefully. Because the future is at stake."

Wiener Neustadt's mayor Klaus Schneeberger, on the other hand, argued that it would relieve traffic congestion and provide an important traffic route for the new hospital. Construction of the 4.8-kilometer eastern bypass is due to begin in the autumn.