Thousands of people gathered in Australia’s two largest cities on Saturday during demonstrations by opponents of the quarantine regime, while in Sydney, several people were detained following violent clashes with police.
As protests against the month-long quarantine regime escalated into violence, more militant protesters in Sydney harassed equestrian police law enforcement officers with stones and flower pots.
In Melbourne, after a meeting at the state parliament, thousands of protesters marched through the city streets.
Demonstrators, in violation of the rules on wearing masks and insignificant travel, gathered in protests the day after the authorities announced that the restrictions could remain in place until October.
The protests, which the organizers themselves call freedom demonstrations, were announced on social media.
“Wake up, Australia!” and “Let’s Dry the Swamp!” were read on protesters ’posters echoing the slogans of the campaigns held abroad.
Similar protests are planned in other Australian cities.
Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, a city of five million, saw 163 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, but the current outbreak has reached almost 2,000.
In Australia, which was relatively easy during the first phase of the pandemic, about half of the country’s 25 million people now have to comply with strict quarantine regimes in several cities.
There is growing public outrage about restrictions, which, admittedly, are often disregarded, as well as the conservative government’s failure to ensure an adequate supply of vaccines.
Only 11% of the population have been fully vaccinated.
Steven Jones, who represents Sydney in the national parliament, condemned the protesters as “selfish, reckless idiots”.
“Nobody wants to be in the arc. That’s exactly the way you prolong it.”
Police said they supported “freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, but today’s protests violate current Covid-19 public health orders.”
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