Motorcade in Dresden
Thousands of opponents of vaccination are protesting in many cities
12/18/2021, 6:26 p.m
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A week before Christmas, opponents of Corona measures take to the streets again to get rid of their dissatisfaction with current politics. There are major protests in Hamburg, Schwerin and Düsseldorf, among others, and counter-demos are also forming in many places.
Opponents and critics of Corona measures have again taken to the streets in many German cities. Counter-protests erupted in many places. According to initial findings, it remained mostly peaceful. In Hamburg, around 11,500 people took to the streets under the motto “The measure is full. Hands off our children”, as the police announced in the early evening. According to the police, the demonstrators in downtown Hamburg mostly adhered to the conditions. “No to compulsory vaccination!” It said on self-made posters.
A bottle was thrown during a physical altercation between participants in the rally and outsiders. According to police, an uninvolved woman was injured in connection with the incident. According to their own statements, the police issued a total of seven evictions during the demonstration, arrested two people temporarily and temporarily held two others in custody. Hundreds of people took part in several counter-demonstrations.
Heated mood at demo in Cottbus
A protest march in which thousands took to the streets in Cottbus, Brandenburg, against corona restrictions was broken up in the evening, according to the police, because there were too many participants. “We found a lot of violations of the mask requirement in the elevator,” said a police spokesman. It is estimated that well over 3000 people took part. According to the officials, the mood was heated, and some of the participants had used verbal aggression against the police. Pyrotechnics were also set off. According to the police, 15 people belonging to the violent right-wing extremist scene were temporarily taken into custody.
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Thousands of opponents of compulsory corona vaccination also demonstrated in Düsseldorf. The police estimated the number in the early evening at around 4,000. The participants moved through the city center. Around 1000 people were registered. The alliance “Düsseldorf stands across” had registered a counter-demonstration with around 200 participants. According to a police spokesman, everything remained peaceful until late afternoon. Last weekend, the authorities in Düsseldorf were surprised by the number of participants in an anti-vaccination demo. According to the police, around 2,500 people came instead of the 300 registered.
Almost 2000 demonstrators move through Schwerin
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According to the police, around 1,900 people gathered for a demo in downtown Schwerin, and the organizers spoke of 2,300. According to a police spokeswoman, many families with children were among the demonstrators. Posters said: “Stop the vaccination madness” or “To Chancellor Scholz: We are the red line”. The slogan alluded to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who had repeatedly said that there were “no red lines” for containing the pandemic. According to the spokeswoman, around 40 people from the left spectrum took part in a counter-rally. They then met for another spontaneous rally near the opponents of vaccination and shouted Antifa slogans.
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The state parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania called for peaceful demonstrations on Friday. Personal threat scenarios or attacks of a physical or psychological nature are unacceptable and illegitimate, according to the parliamentary resolution, which was passed without dissenting votes.
Schwesig responds via Twitter
On December 6, an unannounced demonstration marched towards the home of Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig. The police were able to escort him away shortly before. Schwesig now tweeted her “answer to #corona deniers & opponents of vaccination” and promoted the corona vaccinations in it. “It’s the only way out of the #coronapandemic!” Wrote the head of government.
In view of the first infections with the omicron mutant in the country, Schwesig decided to tighten the corona measures in another tweet not enough: “Even if the number of infections is falling slightly, there is a threat of a fifth wave with #Omikron. That’s why we can’t relax the measures. We have to protect ourselves with boosters and expect that there will be further restrictions.”
There were also demonstrations in several cities in the southwest: after several demonstrations in Freiburg, around 3,500 people took part in a final protest march through the city center, according to the police. Only occasionally had to be sent off due to violations of the mask requirement. About 300 people gathered downtown for a counter-demonstration.
Demonstrators also marched through the city center in Frankfurt and Trier. Around 600 people protested against the Corona measures in Flensburg in Schleswig-Holstein. According to the police, around 185 vehicles lined up in Dresden for a rolling protest against the corona measures through the city center. The participants had attached banners and posters to numerous vehicles in the motorcade. They then called for an end to the pandemic-related restrictions and spoke out against compulsory vaccination. “Everything remained trouble-free,” said a police spokesman on request.
According to the police, almost 2,000 people demonstrated in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, under the motto “Basic rights are not negotiable”. As the “Osnabrücker Zeitung” reports, the police estimate that around 300 people took part in a counter-demonstration.
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Despite the ban on a planned demonstration in Berlin, demonstrators gathered here at the Brandenburg Gate. The police spoke of a quantity “in the lower three-digit range”. How many there were exactly can hardly be said, since there were also numerous tourists on site. Originally, 2000 people who wanted to move through the government district from the Brandenburg Gate were registered.
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