Covid-19: demonstrations against restrictions in several European countries
Several hundred people gathered in Stockholm on Saturday March 20, 2021 to demand an end to restrictions against Covid-19.
AP - Fredrik Sandberg
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
Several demonstrations against the restrictions due to Covid-19 took place in Europe this Saturday, especially in Sweden, but also in Switzerland and Germany, where clashes broke out with the police.
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Several hundred people met in central Stockholm.
Among them anti-vaccines, and activists who protest against the ban on gathering more than eight people.
The demonstrators therefore played cat and mouse with the police by moving from one place to another, reports our correspondent in Stockholm,
Frédéric Faux
.
The restrictions due to Covid-19 are rather moderate in Sweden, but in recent months they have been increasing in number, and Tim does not understand them.
Official figures show the death toll is steadily declining;
since January, there are even fewer deaths in Sweden compared to a normal winter.
“
People are getting sick, the virus is there, but you can't cripple all of society for it.
It's getting worse.
People should be able to go to the gym, meet ... I like to go swimming with my son, but all the pools are closed.
Containment does more damage than anything else.
"
The demonstration in Stockholm in any case surprised Moued, a French tourist amazed by the freedom that Sweden still enjoys.
“
There is no curfew, no confinement, I rediscovered the fact of sitting on the terrace.
When I see that they demonstrate against
the few restrictions
they have, what should we do!
He asks.
Similar protests took place in the cities of Gothenburg, and Malmö.
Clashes between police and demonstrators in Germany
Germany also saw demonstrations against the restrictions on Saturday.
Clashes even erupted between police and opponents of
restrictive measures taken against Covid-19
in Cassel, a city in central Germany, during one of the largest such gatherings since the start of the year in this country.
Several thousand protesters gathered in a square in the center of the city, the main rallying point, tight against each other and not wearing a protective mask.
Police used pepper spray when a group of protesters tried to force their way through a cordon of police to join other malcontents.
This demonstration took place at the call of the “Querdenker” or “Anti-conformist” movement, which has organized some of the largest “anti-corona” rallies in Germany since the start of the pandemic.
Many other German cities saw such gatherings last weekend, but on a smaller scale.
In Switzerland, several thousand people also demonstrated in the city of Liestal to demand an end to the restrictions intended to stem the Covid-19 pandemic.
Between 3,000 and 5,000 people, some of whom wore white overalls, took part in this "silent demonstration" in this town in the canton of Basel (north), according to the estimates of journalists on the spot.
(
With AFP
)
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