The Vienna Christmas Market opened on 10 November in front of the Town Hall Square – the “showpiece”, the Christmas tree of South Tyrol, had been the subject of ridicule online for several days because it was simply “ugly”.
Now problems are coming from Italy also. Italian environmentalists complain, “Mamma Mia, how can you murder such a beautiful tree and then send it to Vienna where it will be burned?” What ended on the Piave in 1918 would now clearly continue with an open battle across the Conifer.
“It is unacceptable that the country of South Tyrol is so ruthlessly eliminating a symbol of natural life and sustainability,” stressed Argante Brancalion, president of the environmental association. Austria must “cut down its own trees”.
The 28-meter-high and 115-year-old spruce, also known as the “scrub” in Netzt, was cut down at the end of October in the Rautal of Annenberg in the South Tyrolean Funensee-Sennes-Prags Nature Park. ,
Since 1959, a separate federal state provides a Christmas tree every year, and South Tyrol has been there since 1989. The last time the South Tyrolean tree stood on the RathausPlatz was in 2014. “A beautiful, perfect tree from our forests has been chosen to represent Vienna And to brighten the Christmas season for guests from all over the world. This tree is also a symbol of our connection Vienna And Austria,” said Arno Comptscher, South Tyrol’s governor at the time.
