The backlash against Austria's mandatory COVID-19 vaccine law

It took me less than two hours to understand why emotions had been running so high over the last few weeks, in what would otherwise have been a relatively calm Vienna.

Austria is the only European Union country to make vaccines for all adults over 18 mandatory. Fines for the unvaccinated can be as much as €3,600 a year.

I had decided to come to the country to report on how this legal requirement had gone down. To find out whether it had helped in the fight against the pandemic or whether it had simply polarised Austrian society even more.

For two days I met politicians and people both for and against the new vaccine law; I also met experts at vaccination centres and police officers required to enforce it.

It was a cold Friday evening in the Austrian capital. I had come to film an anti-vaxxers rally that was protesting in support of the so-called 'freedom convoys'. Trying to emulate their Canadian counterparts, the organisers of the demonstration attempted to bring their trucks, vans and cars into the centre of Vienna - something the authorities immediately stopped.

In response, the anti-vaxxers walked around the streets, surrounding part of Vienna's historic centre. Onlookers cheered them from the pavement, while a heavy police presence controlled everything tightly.

This, of course, was a perfect setting to film. There was plenty of colour, action and sound. Protestors were holding Austrian (and Canadian) flags; there were sirens, horns, rattles and drums. Some demonstrators also held banners with colourful slogans: "Fake pandemic", was written on one. "Stop the COVID cult now", read another.

The quotes that people gave me were also striking."We are being vaccinated like pigs in a stable," one man in his 60s told me. "We are