Fridays for Future returns with Bregenz climate rally

About 120 people gathered in Bregenz on Friday to call for stronger climate action, in the first public appearance of a newly formed Vorarlberg team of Fridays for Future, ORF reported.

The gathering was part of a nationwide climate strike in Austria. The programme included speeches, music and opportunities to talk, as well as making posters and postcards with demands for politicians. Nature conservation advocate Katharina Lins and Hildegard Breiner of the Naturschutzbund nature conservation association were among those attending.

The new organising team currently has four members and came together recently, team member Teresa Halbeisen said. Its initial focus was organising the Bregenz event. The group has yet to decide what actions to take next, and Halbeisen said the rally was not the start of weekly school strikes.

The organisers want to draw attention to the effects of the hot, dry summer and are calling on politicians to take concrete climate action.