Saturday, January 08, 2022
40,000 at a demo in Vienna
Thousands are protesting against corona policy across Germany
Thousands of people across the country are again taking to the streets to demonstrate against what they consider to be the unjustified Corona policy. Masks are often not worn, rules of distance are ignored. The designated CDU boss Merz sees an increasingly broad base of the actions.
Several thousand vaccine opponents and doubters of corona measures have taken to the streets again in Germany. One of the largest events took place in the afternoon in Hamburg, where the police spoke of around 13,700 participants in the evening, who marched through the city center under the motto “The measure is full. Hands off our children”. Previously there was talk of 16,000. There were also larger demonstrations in Magdeburg, Freiburg and Schwerin as well as in Ansbach, Regensburg and Trier. According to police estimates, around 40,000 people gathered for a protest march in the Austrian capital Vienna. The demonstration was largely peaceful. There have been individual arrests, it said. More than 1000 police officers were on duty.
In Hamburg, the organizer called on the participants over loudspeakers to comply with the mask and distance requirements. Nevertheless, many people were traveling without masks and without any distance. A demo participant wore a Star of David with the words “unvaccinated” on their clothes, the police tweeted. A preliminary investigation had been initiated on suspicion of sedition.
In the capital of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania Schwerin the police counted around 1,600 participants in the protest against the corona policy. The organizer spoke of 2000 participants, as a police spokeswoman announced. The demonstration through the city center ran smoothly. “Parents and grandparents say !!! NO !!! to the Covid-19 vaccination for children!” stood on a banner at the head of the march, which was cheered on by loud drums and trumpets. According to observers, masks were rarely worn; Distances seldom kept.
To a counter demo under the motto “Schwerin remains in solidarity – together with reason through the corona pandemic!” only 23 people appeared, said the police spokeswoman. There were no clashes with the participants in the demo against the corona measures.
Freiburg prohibits “Monday walks”
In Baden-Württemberg Freiburg several thousand people took to the streets. The registered protest took place under strict conditions. Opponents of the corona measures and vaccination policy also protested in other cities in the state. The day before, Freiburg had issued a general decree according to which so-called Monday walks are prohibited with “immediate effect” unless they have been notified. With the actions, the demonstrators intended to move through the city without the usual requirements – in particular without compliance with the necessary anti-infection measures, the municipality said. This behavior endangered public safety and order, especially against the background of the spread of the Omikron virus variant.
In Berlin Dozens of people demonstrated against the Corona measures in a car and bicycle parade. The mood is peaceful, said a police spokesman. The police counted more than 70 cars, 100 bikes and a total of about 200 participants. In Magdeburg Thousands of people marched through the city for hours to demonstrate against Corona measures. Trams stood still, roads were temporarily closed. In regensburg it was about 2700 and in Ansbach 2000 demonstrators. In Erfurt According to the organizers and the police, up to 1000 people gathered to demonstrate for democracy and consideration in the pandemic.
In Frankfurt According to the police, around 5,000 people took to the streets at a registered event. There were almost 2000 in central Hesse Wetzlar, where around 500 people took part in a counter-demonstration, as the police announced. In trier According to the police, around 1250 people demonstrated against the Corona measures, and around 100 gathered for a counter-demonstration.
In Minden In East Westphalia, on the other hand, around 2500 people took to the streets to demonstrate against “lateral thinkers”. They expressed their displeasure with corona deniers, vaccination skeptics and right-wing extremists. “Yes to freedom of expression and togetherness – decidedly no to hatred, threats and violence,” it said on a poster.
Lauterbach: Anti-vaccination debate without measure and aim
In Zwönitz, Saxony, the evening before, during protests against corona measures, police officers were attacked with pyrotechnics. As the police headquarters in Chemnitz announced, troublemakers had ignited a smoke pot and a hand torch and threw them in the direction of the emergency services. The attackers were able to be pushed back, whereupon the group dispersed. The police secured the pyrotechnics and initiated an investigation.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told “Welt am Sonntag” that the debate between vaccination opponents and corona deniers had lost all measure and aim. “A small group is ready to wipe all scientific knowledge off the table and voluntarily enter a bubble of pseudo-truths,” said the SPD politician. This is a new and frightening development in German post-war history.
The designated CDU chairman Friedrich Merz wrote on “Focus Online”: “Among the demonstrators are not only notorious violent criminals, but also more and more citizens who have so far led a completely normal life and who are different from conspiracy theories, fearful scenarios and dubious ‘experts’ let yourself be carried away by excesses of hate and violence in matters of health and corona. ” This is not yet a divided society, “with this attribute one would unnecessarily value this radical minority, and it is a very small minority”. But the basic consensus of society is becoming narrower, the spectrum of opinion is growing and the political center is becoming diffuse.