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Frankfurt (Oder) (dpa) - More than 2000 people from Germany and Poland demonstrated against Corona restrictions on Saturday in Frankfurt (Oder), according to the police.
The initiative “lateral thinking” from Duisburg had called for the rally.
"Peace" and "Freedom" were shouted in German and Polish.
Hundreds of people came to the German side from Słubice on the Polish side, some waving Polish flags.
Organizers and the police repeatedly called for people to keep the minimum distance and wear masks.
But many visitors to the "lateral thinking" demonstration did not adhere to it.
The organizers did not initially have a number of participants.
According to the police, around 150 people came to a counter-demonstration.
To this end, the alliance “No place for Nazis in Frankfurt (Oder)” under the motto “Masked ball instead of corona deniers!”
called.
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The organizers of the “lateral thinking” demonstration appealed to the participants to observe the corona rules and warned that the police would otherwise interrupt the rally.
The police called in German and Polish to adhere to the guidelines.
They expanded the demonstration area on the Oder promenade so that more distance was possible.
The officers also provided masks if someone said they didn't have one.
The “lateral thinking” initiative doubts the Corona measures and speaks of a restriction of fundamental rights.
For example, on a cardboard figure in Frankfurt (Oder) it said “Voodoo Virus Wahn”, on a poster “If you sleep in the Corona crisis, you wake up under the dictatorship!”.
One participant wore a yellow protective suit and a sign that read "Total Hygiene" in Gothic script.
“Lateral thinking” founder Michael Ballweg from Stuttgart, who was invited as a speaker, rejected the term “corona denier” used by critics and also turned against extremism.
"We are a peaceful movement in which extremism, violence, anti-Semitism and inhumane ideas have no place," he said.
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In Słubice on the Polish side, only four rallies with five participants each were allowed.
The police in Poland sealed off the end of the city bridge between Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice on Saturday and did not allow visitors from Germany to enter without a mask.
Polish citizens without a mask were accompanied by the police.
The number of corona infections is increasing in both countries.
In Poland, according to the government, there were recently around 15,000 corona infections and 599 deaths within 24 hours.
However, Poland is one of the countries in Europe with the lowest number of tests carried out per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data from the EU health agency ECDC.
According to media reports, protection of the constitution at the federal and state levels consider it possible that the protests against the Corona requirements will develop into a new type of extremism.
According to reports from WDR, NDR and "Süddeutscher Zeitung", this emerges from a paper that is to be discussed at the conference of interior ministers starting on December 9th.
We are therefore talking about an “extremism that does not fall under the phenomena common to the constitution protection group”, that is, cannot be classified as left, right-wing extremist or Islamist, for example.
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Right-wing extremists, “Reich citizens” and conspiracy ideologues also increasingly played a role, but they did not dominate the protests, according to the report - the Federal Office had already made similar statements several times.
However, many demonstrators did not distance themselves from the radicals either, denying their statements or classifying them as unproblematic.
According to the information, several offices for the protection of the constitution from the federal states have carried out the analysis under the leadership of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201128-99-498790 / 4