In several cities in Saxony and Thuringia, hundreds of people protested against the policy to contain the corona pandemic on Monday evening. In Freiberg, Saxony, the police said they had stopped an inadmissible elevator and initiated administrative offense proceedings against a total of 451 people. The number of participants in the elevator was in the upper three-digit range. Up to 1,000 people took to the streets in the Thuringian capital of Erfurt. In politics, meanwhile, there is growing concern about the radicalization of the protests against the Corona policy.

As the Saxon police announced late in the evening, there were protests in Bautzen, Chemnitz, Zwönitz, Hainichen, Mittweida, Schneeberg and other places. At all locations in the Free State, more than 700 administrative offense proceedings and over a dozen criminal proceedings have been opened, including for resistance to law enforcement officers and insults.

In Thuringia, several hundred people each gathered in Erfurt, Bad Salzungen, Jena, Sömmerda, Zeulenroda and Altenburg, according to the state's interior ministry.

In the state capital Erfurt, around 350 people met on the Anger that evening.

The police said that after the assembly had been disbanded, people would have set in motion as an elevator.

At the top around 1000 participants were counted.

The ringleaders had been reported.

Massive protests by Corona critics had already been announced for Monday lunchtime in front of the Dresden state parliament.

According to the police, between 50 and 100 demonstrators came together in the Saxon capital, far fewer than expected.

The Saxon Interior Minister Roland Wöller (CDU) spoke of a dramatic situation that has worsened again in recent weeks.

The protest is increasingly charged with hatred and violence, he said on Monday evening on the television program "RTL Direkt".

The President of the Thuringian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Stephan Kramer, called for more toughness on the part of the state in view of the Corona protests in Saxony and Thuringia.

It is no longer about freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, he told the “editorial network Germany” (Tuesday): “It's just about intimidating and spreading fear.

These people don't need communication, they just need a clear message. "

The threats were no longer directed solely against politicians like the Saxon Minister of Health Petra Köpping (SPD), in front of whose private house near Grimma demonstrators marched with torches on Friday evening, said Kramer.

There have been threats against teachers, doctors and scientists for a long time.

The Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) also pleaded for clear consequences after the torch lift in front of Köpping's house and warned against a radicalization of the “lateral thinker” scene.

"The current incidents in Grimma concern me very much," he told the "editorial network Germany" (Tuesday).

“This is an attack on our democracy.

Such threatening developments have to be nipped in the bud. ”In Bavaria, too, the number of meeting registrations and the number of“ lateral thinkers ”demos increased.