On Monday evening, several thousand people again took to the streets against the Corona policy.

The protests focused on Saxony and Thuringia.

According to the police, a few hundred people demonstrated in Chemnitz, Bautzen, Freiberg, Erfurt and Altenburg, although the Corona regulations only allow significantly fewer participants.

In Saxony, for example, only stationary meetings with ten participants are allowed.

Stefan Locke

Correspondent for Saxony and Thuringia based in Dresden.

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In the past few days, both the police and Saxony's Minister of the Interior, Roland Wöller (CDU), had come under fire because they had hardly countered the elevators, which were often organized by right-wing extremists and disguised as "walks".

This time, however, the police had announced a "tougher pace".

So she was in Dresden with a large contingent on duty to secure a special session of the state parliament.

Contrary to what had been feared, there were only isolated protests in the state capital.

In contrast, the Chemnitz Police Department alone gave the total number of administrative offense proceedings initiated in its catchment area as 717.

Protests are charged with “hatred and violence”

In several small and medium-sized towns, the emergency services stopped the protests and dispersed the elevators.

In addition, dozens of criminal proceedings have been initiated.

The organizers of the protests have been calling for a large number of small gatherings in several places for some time in order to make it as difficult as possible for the police to punish the violations.

"This is a dramatic situation that has worsened again in the past few weeks," said Interior Minister Wöller to RTL.

"We have to take note that the protest is increasingly charged with hatred and violence." However, the government is in the process of pushing back these structures.

Thuringia's Interior Minister Georg Maier (SPD) said he was concerned that elevators would also be possible in Thuringia, as they did on the weekend in front of the private house of the Saxon Health Minister Petra Köpping (SPD).

"You have to take that seriously because it is now reaching people who are becoming increasingly radicalized."

Messenger services like Telegram have been calling for the private addresses of politicians to be published for weeks.