Brenner Pass, Vienna to protesters: reconsider the date of the blockade

Paralysing traffic for eight hours (11 am to 7 pm) along the Brenner motorway is now also frightening the Austrian government. Vienna's Minister for Mobility, Peter Hanke, officially intervenes regarding the blockade announced in the Tyrol for an environmentalist demonstration on 30 May. The protest is an initiative of a Tyrolean municipality (Gries am Brenner) and has been authorised by the court. According to forecasts by the Austrian motorway operator Asfinag, the day in question will be one of the busiest of the year, coinciding with the holidays in three of Germany's most populous federal states: Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony-Anhalt. The blockade could involve more than 32,000 vehicles, including passenger cars and heavy goods vehicles. In Italia, companies have already been sounding the alarm for several days, speaking of an act of 'unprecedented gravity' and 'very heavy damage', with the risk of traffic jams from the Brenner Pass to Verona.

Furthermore, due to various construction sites, alternative routes for transit traffic will only be available to a limited extent. Hanke expresses great concern about the planned event, appealing to the organisers to reconsider: 'Given the sensitivity of the Brenner corridor, extreme caution must be exercised in actions of this kind. Although the ministry does not have the competence to ban the event - whose authorisation in the Tyrol 'must be respected' - a specific order has been initiated to coordinate traffic restrictions on the main road network, in order to ensure the safe running of the event. In spite of the cooperation between the state of Tyrol, the rescue organisations and Asfinag for the safe implementation of the presidium, the ministry reiterates that 'a geographical and temporal shift of the demonstration would be the most reasonable option'.

Hanke recognises the impacts of transit traffic on health, the environment and infrastructure as unacceptable and confirms the priority of supporting the Tyrolean population in the fight against transalpine transit. However, the minister emphasises the need not to jeopardise good international relations. As a country at the heart of Europe, Austria has a responsibility towards the supply chains of the internal market: 'Austria is a reliable international partner. Precisely for this reason, it is my responsibility to emphasise that at stake are relations with neighbours such as Germany and Italia, which should not be burdened by such actions. I therefore appeal to the good sense of the organisers,' says Hanke.