For the second time in recent years, the prayer garden on the Marchfeld Canal has been targeted by vandals. The ÖVP Floridsdorf and the Christian Democracy Platform have called this an attack on Christians and condemned the destruction as a hate crime. Platform leader Jan Ledóchowski sees a possible Islamist motive and is calling for Christian hostility to finally be taken seriously.
The prayer garden in Vienna’s Floridsdorf district is regularly used by people from across the district for worship and religious celebrations. On Saturday night, it was once again the target of massive damage: prayer figures and crucifixes were destroyed. This is already the second incident of this kind in recent years.
The ÖVP Floridsdorf condemned the attack in no uncertain terms. District Councillor Alexander Jansa stated: ‘The renewed acts of violence against religious figures and crucifixes show how deep the hatred of peaceful places of worship apparently runs among some people in Floridsdorf. Such acts cannot be tolerated in our district.’
Club chairwoman Victoria Mayer also emphasised political responsibility: ‘As the ÖVP Floridsdorf, we will address this incident. We will not ignore such hate crimes. As a district, we must also take clear action against them.’
Support comes from the Christian Democracy platform. Its leader, Jan Ledóchowski, expressed his dismay: ‘I am shocked, but not surprised. This attack is one of a series of attacks, and it is striking that faces were defaced again. This could indicate an Islamist background. We call on the authorities to finally take the issue of anti-Christian sentiment seriously.’
With the recent incidents in the prayer garden, pressure is mounting on the authorities to address the issue in a targeted manner. Christian Democrats are calling that attacks on religious symbols be consistently classified as hate crimes and prosecuted accordingly.