Despite the ban on demonstrations, many people have gathered in Berlin to protest against the measures taken against the corona pandemic. There are always clashes with the police in the capital. Despite the use of pepper spray, demonstrators manage to break police chains.
The Berlin police had banned a number of demonstrations this weekend. For example, a rally by the initiative “lateral thinking 711” from Stuttgart, which originally had 22,500 participants registered for the afternoon, was not allowed. The Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court confirmed the ban late on Saturday evening.
According to the agency, the police control large areas in the city. As a police spokeswoman said, more than 1000 people gathered around the Olympic Square. Sometimes people tried to break through barriers. “Here physical violence had to be used in individual cases,” said the spokeswoman on Sunday morning.
Motorcades have a different hygiene concept than gatherings
The demonstrators are apparently taking advantage of the fact that some events that are directed against the politics of the corona pandemic are allowed to take place. For example, a car parade was allowed on Olympic Square because car parades have a different hygiene concept than gatherings. In addition, however, people flocked there on foot, which is considered an inadmissible substitute event. The people were therefore stopped and some personal details were recorded. Again Daily mirror reported, demonstrators justified the blockade of the intersection Länderallee / Reichsstraße by saying that they would wait for the parade.
The police had announced that they would prevent people from gathering at the forbidden gatherings. 2,000 police officers were to be deployed for this purpose, who were to speak to people at an early stage, stop coaches and issue referrals. Obviously, this has not been successful enough. In the Länderallee, for example, the police had to back away from the demonstrators. According to the newspaper, hundreds of demonstrators are marching on the Kaiserdamm in the direction of the Großer Stern – many of them unaccompanied by the police.
The Higher Administrative Court in Berlin had rejected several urgent applications from the demonstrators, since the delta variant of the coronavirus is “significantly more transferable” and the risk of infection would be increased by the arrival of the participants from all over Germany. The hygiene concept raises “clear doubts” about the willingness of the applicant to “work effectively towards compliance with the requirements of the law against infection”.