Berlin's Senator for the Interior, Geisel, wants to wear a mask at demos

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SPD Interior Senator Andreas Geisel with face mask

After the demonstrations over the weekend, Berlin's Senator for the Interior, Andreas Geisel (SPD), wants to introduce an obligation to protect the mouth and nose for meetings. He will propose a corresponding change to the Infection Protection Ordinance to the Senate on Tuesday together with Health Senator Dilek Kalayci (SPD), Geisel said on Monday in the interior committee of the House of Representatives. The change in the law is "an important signal" to the organizers of the controversial demos over the weekend.

According to Geisels, up to 38,000 people were on the streets in Berlin on Saturday to protest against the Corona protective measures - especially during the broken-up demonstration on Saturday afternoon, the minimum distance was not observed. There the attempt to have a mask requirement as a condition failed. The bans on demonstrations and rallies imposed by the Berlin assembly authorities had been lifted by the court.

Geisel said, according to his press office, that the bans that the assembly authority had imposed were justified. "The events of the weekend confirmed that," he said, and continued: "We have to accept that the courts have rated it differently."

Nationwide horror particularly caused an incident on Saturday evening: In front of the Reichstag building, the situation escalated when hundreds of right-wing extremists overcame the barrier to the Reichstag and stood on the stairs. "Reich flags and right-wing extremist rabble in front of the German Bundestag are an unbearable attack on the heart of our democracy," said Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Geisel reiterated his regret "that such pictures could arise". He stressed, however, that the Bundestag was "at no time" unprotected. Berlin's Governing Mayor Michael Müller (SPD) and Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) also agreed on this in a phone call.

height / dpa / AFP