Thousands of people formed a human chain, Saturday, October 3, at the German-Swiss border, in protest against the restrictive measures linked to the pandemic.

For about thirty minutes, the demonstrators gathered on the shores of Lake Constance, straddling Germany, Switzerland and Austria, under a broad sun and in peace.

Facing the lake, they were connected to each other using scarves, scraps of cloth or ropes and the human chain stretched on both sides of the border between Germany and Switzerland which passes through a Constance park.

But the participation seemed to be far below the expectations of the participants who, with 15,000 people expected on the German side, initially aspired to go around the lake to Austria.

A goal which for the German television channel N-tv seemed "very, very difficult" to achieve.

Mobilization below expectations

The police mentioned "a thousand participants in the Constance sector" and a "very calm" situation, noting only a few scattered and minor incidents.

This demonstration was held at the initiative of "free thinkers", a motley gathering of opponents of measures related to the Covid-19 pandemic who have already held two demonstrations with tens of thousands of people in Berlin during the summer.

One of them had ended in excesses which had shocked Germany.

Seventeen parades or rallies were to be held during the day in Constance but in the afternoon, the police indicated that some rallies had not even taken place or with far fewer participants than expected, probably due to rain in the morning.

Sunday, 12 rallies are also announced in the city center even if, as the City has underlined, a majority of them do not intervene at the initiative of "anti-masks" but intend to express their solidarity in these times of a global pandemic.

These demonstrations bring together a motley crowd made up of anti-vaccine activists, conspirators, citizens genuinely concerned about the restrictions linked to Covid-19 but also, and increasingly according to the authorities, far-right supporters.

>> Read also: In Germany, anti-masks are increasingly attracting the far right

The police were present in large numbers in the city and its surroundings facing the risk of possible overflows.

These parades come in the midst of an upsurge in infections in Germany, a country that has been rather spared by Covid-19 so far. 

On Saturday the number of new infections in 24 hours was above the 2,500 mark, the level of April.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who says she is very concerned about this increase, announced on Tuesday new restrictions, particularly on private parties, with fines for offenders who do not respect certain rules.

Towards a ban on the sale of alcohol?

The head of health issues for the City of Berlin also called for a ban on the sale and serving of alcohol between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. in the face of the sharp increase in infections in the capital.

At the last rally at the end of August, several hundred demonstrators forced security barriers to climb the steps of the Reichstag, seat of the Chamber of Deputies, marking a new stage in the radicalization of the movement.

With AFP

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