In several cities in Saxony and Thuringia, hundreds of people protested against the policy to contain the corona pandemic on Monday evening. The police had announced a tougher pace in advance after they had hardly taken action in the past few weeks against the inadmissible protests in Saxony, the state with the highest corona numbers in Germany. There had been sharp criticism of that. The Corona Emergency Ordinance currently only allows stationary rallies with a maximum of ten participants in Saxony.
In Freiberg, Saxony (Central Saxony district), the police said they had stopped an inadmissible elevator and initiated administrative offense proceedings against a total of 451 people. The number of participants in the demonstration was in the upper three-digit range.
In Bautzen, about 350 people were heading towards the city center, the police said. They were stopped and the personal details of 30 people involved were recorded. In addition, there was a meeting on the Kornmarkt in Bautzen, at which the police also intervened. The place was too full and those present were asked to move away. The officers used pepper spray to push people back, the police reported on Twitter.
As the Saxon police announced late in the evening, there were protests in Chemnitz, Zwönitz, Hainichen, Mittweida, Schneeberg and other places. At all locations in the Free State, more than 700 administrative offense proceedings and a dozen criminal proceedings have been opened, among other things because of resistance to law enforcement officers and insults.
Protests also in Thuringia
In Thuringia, several hundred people gathered in Erfurt, Bad Salzungen, Jena, Sömmerda, Zeulenroda and Altenburg, according to the state’s interior ministry. In the state capital Erfurt, around 350 people met on the Anger that evening. The police said that after the assembly had been disbanded, people would have set in motion as an elevator. At the top around 1000 participants were counted. The ringleaders were reported. In addition, eight reports were recorded, among other things, because of resistance and assault against law enforcement officers as well as insult. Two demonstrators were slightly injured.
On Monday afternoon there were protests by Corona critics in front of the Saxon state parliament in Dresden. According to the police, between 50 and 100 demonstrators came together in the Saxon capital, far fewer than expected. At least 27 people now have to answer for violating the Corona Emergency Ordinance. According to the police, there were also two criminal proceedings for insulting and resisting enforcement officers.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the number of new weekly infections per 100,000 inhabitants on Tuesday for Saxony with 1082.1, for Thuringia with 1023.1. The Saxon state parliament determined the epidemic situation in the Free State on Monday and thus created the legal basis for its own protective measures in the corona pandemic.