Austria’s Constitutional Court (VfGH) has decided that wearing a mask at a political protest can be a permissible form of expressing oneself, even though the country has a tight legal ban on covering one’s face in public.
The decision published on March 23 followed the complaint of a left-winger against a fine levied on him by the district administration of Gmunden (Upper Austria).
In August 2024, the plaintiff had taken part in a protest against Herbert Kickl, leader of the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ). Kickl had come to Gmunden for an interview with state broadcaster ORF on the shores of scenic Lake Traunsee.
At the protest, the man and two others – reportedly members of a small left-wing party – tried to approach the interview site on a boat while holding up a poster with the slogan “Thank you, Herbert – from Putin, with love! Yours, Vladimir”, alluding to the alleged Russophilia of Kickl and the FPÖ.
The plaintiff was wearing a mask bearing the resemblance of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Local police intercepted the boat before it reached the interview site. The men received fines of €100 for disturbing the peace. The plaintiff also received a fine of €60 for violating Austria’s ban on face coverings in public.
In 2017, the coalition government of the Conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the FPÖ introduced a law banning the use of face coverings in public. The ban was motivated by security concerns and also aimed at Austria’s growing community of radical Muslims.
The 2017 law included exceptions from the ban for reasons of health (e.g. the FFP2 masks worn during the Covid-19 pandemic), culture and tradition (for example, carnival masks), as well as sportswear such as ski masks.
The Constitutional Court now ruled that this list of exceptions was not exhaustive – and that a mask worn as a “stylistic device” to express one’s opinion was permissible under freedom of expression.
The court thus overturned the fine. Previously, a lower court had already overturned the fines the protesters had received for disturbing the peace as that had been minor and short, and the fines were disproportionate when weighed against the freedoms of congregation, opinion and the arts.
In effect, the three activists were acquitted of all fines.
Observers see the decision as another sign of the Constitutional Court’s alleged left-wing bias. Conservative publicist Andreas Unterberger wrote on das-tagebuch.at portal yesterday: “Now all radical protesters know they only have to wear a Trump, Putin, Che Guevara or Stalin mask and they can remain anonymous, throw stones, or yell anti-Semitic slurs.
“The only open question is whether the VfGH judges ruled the way they did out of stupidity or maybe even out of secret sympathy for the radicals.”
A majority of the judges on the Constitutional Court were reportedly nominated by the Conservative ÖVP.
Brussels Signal reached out to FPÖ and Kickl for comment but had not heard back at the time of writing.
