With the increase in new cases, thousands of anti-blockade protesters ignored the ban in protest against the German government’s coronavirus measures. Berlin police detained nearly 600 people on Sunday.
According to the local news media Deutsche Welle, the police stated that the protesters “harassed and attacked” the police in the Charlottenburg district of the city.
The Berlin police said on Twitter: “They tried to break through the police cordon and pull our colleagues out. This led to the use of irritants, batons and physical violence.”
About 2,000 police officers responded to the protests on Sunday, and about 5,000 people demonstrated.
Paul Zinken
Deutsche Welle reported on Saturday that the judge banned 13 planned demonstrations in Berlin, some of which were planned by the Querdenker movement, which opposed Germany’s coronavirus restrictions.
According to the Associated Press, Wolfgang Schaeuble, the chairman of the German parliament, attacked the Kdenk movement on Sunday.
“If almost all experts in the world say that the coronavirus is dangerous and vaccination is helpful, then who actually has the right to say,’Actually, I am smarter than that?'” he told the German newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.
“For me, this is almost unbearable arrogance,” he added.
German intelligence officials stated in April that they had begun to monitor some members of the Querdenker movement. According to a report by Reuters at the time, German spies claimed that the organization attracted far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists.
Angela Pley, a spokesperson for the German BfV spy agency, told Reuters: “Legal protests against coronavirus politics have been used repeatedly and increasingly to provoke escalation.”
With the spread of the highly contagious Delta Variant virus, the number of Covid-19 cases in Germany has surged.
According to the Associated Press, there were nearly 2,100 new infections in the country this Sunday, 500 more than last Sunday.
Although Germany has relaxed some COVID-19 restrictions, many activities (including dining in restaurants and staying in hotels) now require customers to show proof of vaccination, documents that have recovered from the virus, or negative tests.
Over the weekend, Germany was not the only European country protesting the COVID-19 public health measures.
On Saturday, French officials deployed 3,000 security forces to Paris, and several demonstrators took to the streets to protest the new COVID-19 health pass.
The pass requires French citizens to present a certificate of COVID-19 vaccination, a negative test for the virus, or a certificate of recent recovery from the virus in order to enter businesses and public places.
French authorities estimate that about 150,000 protesters across the country participated in the demonstrations on Saturday.
