Austrian Parliament Approves Mandatory COVID-19 Jab

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So far, 72% of Austrians have been fully vaccinated against the virus

EKO HOT BLOG reports that Austria is inching closer to introducing a compulsory COVID-19 vaccination order after parliament’s lower house voted in favour of new government proposals.

The law, which is due to come into effect on 1 February, would make Austria the first European country to introduce a mandatory jab.

From mid-March the law will see adults unvaccinated against COVID-19 subjected to fines of up to €3,600 (£2,994).

So far, 72% of Austrians have been fully vaccinated against the virus.

The bill must now pass the upper house and be signed into law by President Alexander Van der Bellen, steps largely expected to be formalities.

The vaccine order is expected to remain in force until January 2024, with the government investing €1.4bn in measures designed to encourage unvaccinated people to come forward for the jab.

Addressing lawmakers on Thursday afternoon, Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein called the measure a “big, and, for the first time, also lasting step” in Austria’s fight against the pandemic.

Chancellor Karl Nehammer told reporters ahead of the vote that vaccines were “an opportunity for our society to achieve lasting and continuous freedom, because the virus cannot restrict us any further”.

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A majority of MPs, including those from Nehammer’s governing centre-right coalition and the three main opposition parties, backed the bill, by 137 votes to 33.

The far-right Freedom Party, which has courted the votes of Austria’s substantial anti-vaccine minority, has taken a stand against the bill.

Its leader, Herbert Kickl, said the mandate “paves the way to totalitarianism in Austria” and vowed he would continue to refuse vaccination in defiance of the new law.

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Yinka Akanbi

Yinka is an aesthete and a cosmopolite.