They were between 200 and 300 demonstrators in Paris to shout "freedom! Freedom!" and a thousand in London to demand "the end of medical tyranny". But it was in Berlin that they were the most numerous: 38,000 people gathered to denounce the restrictions imposed in the face of the Covid epidemic. The German police had to disperse the crowd and proceeded to 300 arrests, the participants n '' having failed to comply with the instructions on social distancing and wearing a mask.

According to the Minister of the Interior of the city Andreas Geisel, around 200 of them were arrested in front of the Russian embassy, ​​after throwing stones and bottles at the police, and most subsequently released. There are no casualties.

In the evening, a group also crossed barriers around the Reichstag, which houses the parliament, before being bluntly pushed back by the police, according to an AFP photographer.

In Germany, the organizers of the meeting called "for an end to all restrictions in place" to fight the new coronavirus. Previously, the police had interrupted a parade for lack of respect for barrier gestures.

>> To read also: In Europe, an anti-mask movement fueled by an "anti-system imagination

After the demand for the parade to be dispersed in Berlin at the start of the afternoon, the demonstrators remained there, shouting “resistance!”, Then “we are the people!”, A slogan used by the far right. They repeatedly sang the German national anthem.

Entitled "festival of freedom and peace", the event, which brings together "free thinkers", anti-vaccine activists, conspiracy activists or even far-right sympathizers, is the second of its kind in a month and worries the authorities.

The crowd was very mixed, from all age groups, including families with young children. The rainbow peace flags and the German flags stood side by side, the demonstrators also repeatedly shouted "Merkel must go!", The slogan of the far-right Alternative for Germany against Chancellor.

"The profiles are extremely varied in this movement of anti-masks"

184000

"I am not a far-right sympathizer, I am here to defend our fundamental freedoms," Stefan, 43-year-old Berliner, shaven head, wearing a gray T-shirt with white capitals written on it, told AFP: " Thinking helps! ".

"Immediate resignation" from the government

The municipality of the German capital had initially banned the demonstration for "reasons of public health": the impossibility in its eyes to enforce the distances of at least 1.5 meters between demonstrators. But the administrative court, seized in summary by the organizers, finally gave them reason on Friday.

The new rally came amid growing discontent in German opinion over the restrictions linked to the pandemic.

And this even if Germany has resisted rather better than its neighbors, and the restrictions to fight against the new coronavirus have never been as strict as in France or Italy for example.

The initiator of the demonstration, Michael Ballweg, a computer entrepreneur without a political label displayed at the head of the movement "Non-conformist thinkers-711" which appeared in Stuttgart, demanded at the meeting in Berlin the "immediate resignation" of the government, triggering thunderous applause.

Like many European countries, Germany has been facing a resumption of the pandemic in recent weeks, with an average of some 1,500 new cases reported every day.

With AFP

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