Vienna (dpa) - Nearly 3,000 people demonstrated against an annual right-wing ball in Vienna on Friday, police said, while some of the protest was also directed against the interior ministers‘ plan to curtail rights of demonstrators in the future.Some 2,700 police were deployed to prevent clashes with guests of the Akademikerball in the former imperial Hofburg palace, which is organized by the Freedom Party (FPOe).The far-right opposition party has led in voter surveys for more than a year.Its annual ball has drawn far-right politicians and sympathizers from Austria and other European countries in the past."No Nazis in the Hofburg," read a sign carried by one protester.Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka suggested on Friday that organizers of future protests should be made liable for damage caused by demonstrators."This has also become a demonstration to defend demonstration rights," Magdalena Augustin, a spokeswoman of the leftist organizers, told broadcaster ORF."Fun protests" that do not advocate any serious cause might be banned, and authorities would be able to declare no-go zones to protect shop owners from protesters, the minister of the centre-right People‘s Party said.After his plans were widely criticized by Amnesty International, trade unions and nearly every other major party, Sobotka clarified that organizers would be liable only if they themselves break laws.Over the past months, Sobotka‘s OeVP has drawn up tough immigration and security policy proposals that are very similar to FPOe demands.The FPOe backed Sobotka‘s plans on Friday and said they were based on the party‘s own ideas."The right to demonstrate must not be abused to terrorize, defame and threaten those who have different [political] views," FPOe secretary general Herbert Kickl said.In 2014, a small group of radicals among the protesters at the far-right party ball rioted in the city centre and caused massive damage to shops and police cars.Police reported no major incidents on Friday, but some protesters tried to prevent ball-goers from reaching the Hofburg.
