In 2017, scientists worldwide organized about 600 rallies to draw attention to the science-critical views of then US President Trump. These concerns have intensified at the beginning of his second term. According to the Austrian "Scientists for Future" movement, which organized rallies in Vienna and Salzburg, this is an "unprecedented attack on the freedom of science."

March for Science: "Science not Silence" in front of the University of Vienna

The acting club chairwoman and science spokesperson of the Greens, Sigrid Maurer, also emphasized on the short message service BlueSky: "Anti-science sentiment and disinformation are among the great challenges of the present. Not only in the USA do we see how societal discourse and democratic opinion formation are threatened when scientific facts are questioned." Furthermore, she calls in her post - not least the politicians - to "commit to the findings of science and to discuss our decisions on the basis of facts in the future."

In bright sunshine, according to the organizers' count, around 500 participants gathered in front of the University of Vienna for the "March for Science" - as the Vienna organizers named their event in reference to the 2017 action - shortly after 1:00 PM. In Vienna, the initiators hoped for a four-digit number of participants. "Science not Silence" or "This sign is flat, the earth is not" could be read on banners that were meant to motivate loud protest and reject conspiracy myths. At the University of Salzburg, the local "solidarity action" had already started in the morning.

In the USA, fear of layoffs and sometimes drastic cuts in research funding now prevails in many places. It is telling and shocking that we now have to stand up again for the freedom of science in international solidarity to point out disinformation and ultimately a democracy-hostile prevention of important research, said social scientist Julia Partheymüller. The field must be protected from political influence as much as possible. If this is undermined, and as is currently happening in the USA, hundreds of research projects are stopped overnight because they do not appear politically opportune to the Trump administration, it leads to "sustainable damage," Partheymüller said.

Science Minister Holzleitner: Free Research "Not a Privilege, but a Necessity"

Scientists in the USA, who, for example, collect and evaluate important data on climate change, would find themselves out on the street from one day to the next, so to speak. Important information would disappear just as quickly from public websites, according to the speakers at the opening event. In Europe, too, science must now come even more "out of the much-cited ivory tower," said Alexander Behr from "Discourse - The Science Network." The new Science Minister Eva-Maria Holzleitner (SPÖ) assured the scientific community of her support in a statement on Friday. Free research is "not a privilege, but a necessity - for progress, an open society, and our liberal democracy," it said.

Originally, the demonstrating scientists wanted to move to Minoritenplatz, but due to the demonstrations against the freedom party's "Academics Ball" also taking place on Friday, they had to change plans. Thus, they made their way from the Vienna University Ring via Alser Straße, Spitalgasse, and Währinger Straße to the Votivpark, which is actually just a stone's throw away from the university, where the final rally was scheduled. Planned here were speeches by the ecological economist and "Scientist of the Year," Sigrid Stagl, or the environmental physician Hans-Peter Hutter.

(APA/Red)

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