thousands of demonstrators hostile to the measures restricting the freedom of the individual to combat the Covid-19 marched peacefully Saturday afternoon in the centre of Berlin. Estimated at approximately 15 000 by the police, the protesters were ultimately far less numerous than the 500,000 announced by the organizers of the mobilization entitled ” the end of the pandemic – the Day of freedom “.
Among the participants in the procession varied, which was headed towards the Brandenburg gate, several chanted ” we are the second wave “, ” resistance “, or even ” the biggest conspiracy theory is the pandemic of the novel coronavirus “. Few of them wore a mask, according to a journalist of the Agence France-Presse, and the distancing of physical one-half feet is normally required was not respected.
The police of Berlin, who with the help of megaphones has repeatedly called on the demonstrators to respect the gestures barriers, has announced on Twitter to have “filed a complaint” against the organizer of the event because of the ” non-observance of hygiene rules “. Several counter-protesters, including a group of ” grandmothers against the extreme right “, have insulted the activists, calling them ” nazis “. The motto of the event, ” Day of freedom “, is also the title of a movie from the director of nazi Leni Riefenstahl on the conference of the party of Adolf Hitler’s NSDAP in 1935.
“Covidiots”
Several politicians have been critical of this mobilization. Saskia Esken, head of the social democrats, the minority party of the coalition government with the conservatives of Angela Merkel, has blasted these ” Covidiots “. “Without distance, without a mask : they are not only a danger to our health, but also our success against the pandemic and for the recovery of the economy, education and society. Irresponsible ! ” she tweeted.
Read also Coronavirus : in Berlin, a hospital brand new… and empty
Jan Redmann, leader of the CDU in the Land parliament of Brandenburg, was estimated on the same social network : “1, 000 new infections per day, still in Berlin, and there are protests against the anti-coronavirus ? We can’t allow these dangerous nonsense. “If Germany has up to now been rather spared by the pandemic, which was less than 9 200 victims, the authorities alarmed by a slow recovery in the number of infections in recent weeks. On Saturday, the number of new infections has increased by 955 compared to the previous day, a level not reached since may 9, according to the Institute of health Robert Koch.
