Protests took place in Austria and Germany on Saturday against government measures to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Vienna police said 15,000 people took part in the demonstration in the city center, but several thousand more took part in the march, bringing the total number of protesters to 44,000.
Herbert Cycl, leader of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe), called for an effort to oppose the mandatory vaccination scheduled for February in Austria.
He stated that compulsory vaccination, like a loophole for unvaccinated people indefinitely, was an “attack on humanity”.
The far-right populist declared that “this government is acting sadistically”.
Four of the five parties represented in the Austrian parliament have supported the government’s plan to introduce mandatory vaccination in the country to prevent new waves of the coronavirus outbreak. Strict penalties are also planned for those who refuse to be vaccinated.
In recent weeks, there have been a number of large-scale demonstrations in Vienna against the government’s policy of overcoming the pandemic, each attracting more than 40,000 participants.
Relatively smaller demonstrations took place on Saturday in many parts of Germany.
10,000 people gathered in the center of Hamburg.
Police said the protest was peaceful and that “as far as they could see” social distancing rules were followed.
In Trier, around 500 people took part in a planned demonstration against the restrictions, but around 100 people gathered to take the opposite view. Police said there was no widespread disorder, but some demonstrators were sent home for refusing to comply with police demands.
In a similar demonstration, 2,000 people gathered in both Noimarkt and Firt, and 100 demonstrators gathered in Munich.
In several cities, such as Munich and Berlin, protesters also protested in their cars as they drove around the city with beeps and posters.
Similar demonstrations took place in several German cities on Friday. The largest of these was a gathering of 500 people in Stendal.
One police officer injured in collision in Ratenova
In Germany, the incidence of Covid-19 has reached its highest level since the start of the pandemic, so various restrictions have been reintroduced, with special restrictions on non-vaccinators.
Health authorities said on Saturday that 53,697 new infections had been registered in the previous day, which is about 10,000 less than a week ago.
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