Innsbruck (OTS) – After the suicide of doctor Lisa-Maria Kellermayr, expressions of sympathy must not be enough. What has (not) happened must be dealt with, and the authorities and politicians must do everything they can to ensure that there are no more hate victims.
For days, leading representatives of the governing parties did not comment on the suicide of the Upper Austrian doctor Lisa-Maria Kellermayr. Now there are expressions of sympathy; and from ÖVP Chancellor Karl Nehammer comes the often-heard sentence: “Hate on the net and personal threats have no place in our society.” But they do, as not only the Kellermayr case has shown. In the summer of 2020, the coalition proudly presented a law against “hate on the net.” Green Justice Minister Alma Zadić found at the time: “We’re making the Internet the place it should be.” It is not, as not only the Kellermayr case has shown. Despite the obvious weaknesses of the legal guidelines, ÖVP Minister Karoline Edtstadler lets it be known that the work will not be revised. The head of the Green Party, Sigrid Maurer, continues to praise it. She locates failure of the Upper Austrian executive; she has the impression that it had neither the competence nor the willingness to pursue the matter, she said in ZiB2. The state police’s reply: they had acted correctly. So we are back where we always are after tragic events: People emphasize that they themselves did everything right, that others made mistakes. This self-cleansing reflex is inappropriate and not helpful.
Of course, what happened or did not happen in the run-up to the death of the physician – at the authorities and in politics – must be meticulously reviewed. But there are also lessons to be learned.
If platforms like Twitter and Telegram do not care about regulations, then action must be taken – also across Europe; hate on the Internet knows no borders. If the police lack the technology to fight the anonymous men who terrorize women first and foremost, and if there is a lack of knowledgeable personnel, then action is needed – from politicians. And those among them who, out of tactical calculation – as before the election in Upper Austria – believe that they have to accommodate Corona-harmless people and vaccination opponents should finally understand that this does not work. The propagated “We have to fill in the gaps” is a phrase that does not do justice to the facts.
A small minority has divided, instrumentalized the pandemic for its own purposes, radicalized itself, stylized itself as a victim. There can be no tolerance for right-wing, not only verbally violent mobs that network unchallenged. One victim is Lisa-Maria Kellermayr. With all the means of a constitutional democracy, everything must be done to ensure that there is no other.
Tiroler Tageszeitung
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The article Tiroler Tageszeitung, editorial, issue of August 5, 2022. by KARIN LEITNER. “Learning lessons – and quickly” appeared first on TOP News Austria – News from Austria and around the world.
