Sturm und Drang

摘要

The Serene alpine nation of Austria had never seen anything like it. For five consecutive days last week, the elegant streets of downtown Vienna were packed with raucous demonstrators. Thousands of young people marched through the city, past the wedding-cake palaces where the Hapsburg emperors reigned for centuries, waving banners and shouting slogans against the new government. On Friday, hundreds of youths threw stones and paint at police, who charged back with batons and fired water cannons. Dozens on both sides were injured. Even the ceremony inaugurating the new government had to be drastically altered. Instead of the usual procession across the 18th-centu-ry Ballhaus Platz in fancy dress, new Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel and his cabinet sneaked to and from the proceedings via a tunnel to avoid a crowd of 2,000 protesting the government's coalition partner—the stridently right-wing Freedom Party and its charismatic leader, Joerg Haider.