Berlin/Brussels (dpa) – Thousands of people in Germany took to the streets again at the weekend to protest against the state’s corona policy. In many places they were opposed by counter-demonstrators. It remained largely peaceful.
In Erfurt, the police used pepper spray on Saturday to prevent a protest march against the Corona policy from marching towards the state parliament, as the situation center announced. In Stuttgart, demonstrators protested in front of the Südwestrundfunk (SWR) building against media coverage of the pandemic.
“Lying press”, “We are the people”
In Düsseldorf, according to police estimates, more than 7,500 opponents of the Corona policy moved through the city center on Saturday, according to the police in Freiburg there were around 5,500 who met around 2,000 counter-demonstrators. According to the police, around 5,000 opponents of the corona measures demonstrated in Saarbrücken on Sunday. Critics also took to the streets elsewhere, for example on Saturday in Hamburg, Schwerin, Offenbach, Chemnitz, Leipzig, Dresden, Regensburg and Ansbach. In front of the SWR building in Stuttgart, demonstrators repeatedly shouted “lying press” or “We are the people,” as an eyewitness reported. The police asked participants to wear a mask. According to the police, 400 participants in an AfD Corona demonstration protested in Herrenberg in Swabia on Sunday – and around 1000 in one of the “Herrenberg stays colorful” initiative. At an Antifa event attended by 350 counter-protesters, 20 were taken into custody after police say they acted against officers.
The German Association of Journalists (DJV) accused the demonstrators of not having understood the principle of freedom of the press. Anyone who calls the “lying press” and claims that the SWR and other media are reporting what they are told “from above” is wrong, said the Baden-Württemberg DJV state association on Saturday. “At the same time demanding that the media should report in their interest is absurd. That reveals little understanding of how independent media work and function,” says DJV state chairman Markus Pfalzgraf.
Nouripour is looking for a conversation
According to Green Party politician Omid Nouripour, part of the corona protest scene can be “win back” with talks and persuasion. Nouripour, who is applying for the Green Party presidency together with Ricarda Lang, told the German Press Agency: “There is a hard, sometimes militant core that I have no understanding for, but I have empathy for many who are unsettled run along.”
He had visited people who were against the Covid 19 vaccinations and also had such people in his circle of acquaintances. In personal conversations, he notes “that their individual experiences have shaken confidence in the institutions.” The “hard core of the corona deniers” should be judged differently. Some of these are people from the right-wing milieu who fundamentally question the free-democratic basic order: “I’m afraid they’ve lost all hops and malt.”
Lower Saxony’s Justice Minister Barbara Havliza (CDU) told the dpa in Hanover: “Many of the participants are ultimately against everything the state tells them to do, and they turn against it.” During the demonstrations she observed “a questionable form of disenchantment with democracy and the state”.
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