Covid-19: in Berlin, thousands of "anticorona" demonstrators make their voices heard

"Put on the masks", "no compulsory vaccination", "return of freedoms!" ... In Berlin, several thousand demonstrators demanded, Saturday August 1, the abolition of the restrictive measures put in place to fight the Covid- 19. Estimated at some 20,000 by the police, the demonstrators ended up being dispersed by the police, failing to wear masks.

The participants in this motley procession bringing together "free thinkers", anti-vaccine activists, conspiracy activists or even far-right sympathizers, were far fewer than the 500,000 announced by the organizers of this mobilization entitled "The end of the pandemic - Day of the freedom".

The Berlin police have filed a complaint against the organizer

"We are the second wave", "Resistance" or even "the biggest conspiracy theory is the pandemic of the new coronavirus", notably chanted the demonstrators under a blazing sun.

In the crowd, few of them wore a mask, according to an AFP journalist, and the physical distancing of five feet normally required was not respected.

After several warnings from the police requiring participants to respect barrier gestures, they decided to dissolve the demonstration at the end of the afternoon.

"Please move away quickly and if possible alone or in small groups from the old meeting place," tweeted the Berlin police who earlier had already indicated that they had filed a complaint against the organizer of the event because of the "non- compliance with hygiene rules ".

"There are no more sick"

According to the demonstrators, these measures should disappear. Indeed, for them, the health crisis is now over.

"It is a pure tactic of fear: I do not see any danger at all with the virus," Iris Bitzenmeier told AFP. "I don't know other sick people. I knew a lot of sick people in March, skiers, vacationers, something was really happening in February, but now there are no more sick".

An opinion shared by Anna-Maria Wetzel, who arrived with about fifteen friends from Baden-Württemberg (south-west) where she has already participated in several similar gatherings in Stuttgart.

“People who don't educate themselves, unlike us, remain ignorant and believe what the government is telling them. They go into fear that the government is putting in our heads. And fear weakens the immune system, "she claims.

Several counter-demonstrators, including a procession of “grandmothers against the extreme right”, called these activists “Nazis”.

The motto of the protest, "Freedom Day", is also the title of a film by Nazi director Leni Riefenstahl about Adolf Hitler's NSDAP party conference in 1935.

"Covidiots"

Several politicians have criticized this mobilization. Saskia Esken, head of the Social Democrats, a minority party in the government coalition with Angela Merkel's conservatives, criticized these "Covidiots".

"Without distance, without mask: they do not only endanger our health, but also our success against the pandemic and for the revival of the economy, education and society. Irresponsible!", A- she writes on Twitter.

Tausende #Covidioten feiern sich in #Berlin als „die zweite Welle“, ohne Abstand, ohne Maske. Sie gefährden damit nicht nur unsere Gesundheit, sie gefährden unsere Erfolge gegen die Pandemie und für die Belebung von Wirtschaft, Bildung und Gesellschaft. Unverantwortlich!

Health Minister Jens Spahn followed suit. "Yes, protests should be possible in times of coronavirus as well, but not like this. Distance, hygiene rules and masks serve to protect us all; this way we treat each other with respect."

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer showed him more understanding of them in an interview with the Passauer Neue Presse: "Of course, there are always different opinions when it comes to infringements of rights. fundamentals and restrictions on freedom. But first of all, it is normal and then, in my opinion, it is not the majority ".

If Germany has so far been rather spared from the pandemic which has killed less than 9,200 people, the authorities are alarmed by a slow resumption of infections. On Saturday, their number increased by 955 from the previous day, a level that had not been reached since May 9, according to the Robert Koch Health Institute.

With AFP

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